North Korea is ready to improve relations with countries that “treat us friendly,” the communist country’s No. 2 leader said yesterday ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Asia.
The remark by Kim Yong-nam, North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, could be an olive branch to Washington before Clinton’s trip — even though it came amid reports the North is gearing up to test-fire a long-range missile in an apparent attempt to grab US President Barack Obama’s attention.
South Korean officials said yesterday that Seoul plans to complete its own missile defense system against North Korea in three years.
Clinton was scheduled to depart yesterday on a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.
“We will develop relations with countries that treat us friendly,” Kim told a national meeting held as part of celebrations on the eve of the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-il, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea has reportedly moved a long-range Taepodong-2 missile to a launch site on the country’s northeastern coast. The missile is the country’s most advanced, and is believed capable of reaching US territory. South Korean media have said a launch could come this month.
Analysts say North Korea’s saber rattling appears to be an attempt to grab Obama’s attention so as to start negotiations where it can extract concessions, since the new US administration seemed more interested in other issues such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Despite his talk of ties with “friendly” countries, Kim Yong-nam yesterday kept up the North’s near-daily harangue against Seoul.
“All Koreans in the North, the South and overseas should rise up to hand an iron hammer blow to anti-unification forces in South Korea that are bringing the catastrophe of a nuclear war,” he told the national meeting.
Officials at Seoul’s defense ministry said South Korea was pushing to establish its own air defense unit, exclusively to detect and intercept North Korean ballistic missiles, by 2012.
The unit, to cost a total of 300 billion won (US$214 million), will complete an ambitious air and missile defense project that has been pushed for since 2006, they said.
Seoul plans to buy new radars that can detect objects up to 1,000km away for the new system, which will put the North’s missiles under close watch around the clock, they said.
North Korea has short-range Scuds and Rodongs with a range of 1,300km, while actively developing longer-range Taepodong missiles that could reach the US.
Scuds and Rodongs put all of South Korea within range.
The North has responded furiously to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who took office last February and who has linked major economic aid to progress in the communist country’s nuclear disarmament.
Last month, the North said it had scrapped all peace accords with the South, including a 1991 agreement that recognized the Yellow Sea border as an interim frontier. The announcement sparked fears of another inter-Korean clash, as the sea border was the scene of bloody naval battles in 1999 and 2002.
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