WASHINGTON — A blunt and explicit threat on Thursday from North Korea that its weapons programs would "target" the United States, and that it would proceed with a third and "higher-level" nuclear test, poses a stark challenge to the Obama administration at a time when it hoped to focus its major diplomatic effort on restraining Iran's less-advanced nuclear program.
Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press
South Koreans in Seoul watched TV news reports showing file footage of a North Korean military parade after an announcement that North Korea would conduct another nuclear test.
Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press
Glyn Davies, the American representative for North Korea policy, spoke on Thursday after meeting with South Korea's nuclear envoy, Lim Sung-nam, at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.
A new nuclear test in defiance of the United Nations would be the first under the North's new and untested leader, Kim Jong-un, and the clearest indicator yet that he is following his autocratic father's path, pushing ahead with a nuclear weapons program that analysts say is increasingly sophisticated.
The statement from the North Korean National Defense Commission was a response to the United Nations Security Council's approval this week of a resolution condemning the North's most successful rocket launching to date and tightening sanctions — a resolution that China, the North's biggest ally, voted to approve.
The North's threats were considerably more specific than past warnings and came just as American intelligence agencies expressed concern that the country may have made considerable progress in its nuclear and missile programs despite longstanding sanctions.
The North stated clearly, rather than implying, that its nuclear program would now be aimed at the United States — something suggested in the past, for instance, by propaganda posters showing a missile striking what looks like Capitol Hill.
The statement also explicitly ruled out any talks over "denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula, which has been the objective of both on-again-off-again international talks with Pyongyang for two decades and an agreement the North signed with South Korea 21 years ago.
"We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people," the statement said, using the abbreviation for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
But it also repeated past wording that the nuclear program was meant as deterrence.
Assessing North Korea's real intentions is always difficult, and it may prove that the statement, issued by the country's highest military body, was another outburst by an insecure, starving country seeking to shake down the West for more aid, a cycle President Obama had vowed to break. Pyongyang's public declarations often heat up at times when the United States is focusing its attention elsewhere.
Still, the statement comes at a time when American officials were already expressing renewed concerns about the North's intentions. Intelligence officials have concluded that the recent long-range rocket test was successful, and reached as far as the Philippines before propelling a washing-machine-size satellite into orbit. It later tumbled, but the launching suggested a capability to toss a warhead much farther than before.
American intelligence officials said recently that, at best, the North's missiles could hit Hawaii, and that it would be at least three years, maybe more, before that range could be extended to the continental United States.
American intelligence officials have also become concerned that the latest rocket test indicated that the country's new leader might have decided that confrontation with the West could prove a more successful strategy to retaining power than a new attempt at difficult economic reforms.
There had been hopes that Mr. Kim — who is reported to have made modest economic changes and is portrayed as more affable than his father — might be willing to compromise with the West for economic aid. Thursday's threat was the latest suggestion that he was more likely to follow the pattern that his father, Kim Jong-il, established when he ran the country: a cycle of a rocket launching, United Nations condemnation and nuclear testing.
"It's a major test for Kim Jong-un," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. "Unlike the rocket launching in December, which the North has said was conducted because it was his father's dying wish, a nuclear test will be Kim Jong-un's decision, one for which he will be held responsible."
The North appears to be making preparations for a possible nuclear test at the Punggye test site in northeastern North Korea, near the Chinese border. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters on Thursday that the North Koreans "have the capability, frankly, to conduct these tests in a way that makes it very difficult to determine whether or not they are doing it."
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Choe Sang-hun from Seoul, South Korea.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
North Korea Issues Blunt New Threat to U.S.
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/01/north-korea-issues-blunt-new-threat-to.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
North Korea Issues Blunt New Threat to U.S.
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
North Korea Issues Blunt New Threat to U.S.
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar