North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has described his regime as “invulnerable,” state media said yesterday, as tensions mounted over a planned rocket launch.
Kim made the remark as he watched one of his artillery units perform a live-fire exercise, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. It did not give a date or location for when Kim made the comments.
“Our socialist fortress is invulnerable and our revolutionary cause is sure to win one victory after another as we have these steel-like elite ranks,” Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying.
PHOTO: AP
North Korea last week notified international aviation and maritime agencies that it would launch a communications satellite between April 4 and April 8.
Seoul and Washington said the launch was a pretext to test its Taepodong-2 missile — the first one technically capable of reaching North America. It would be the third long-range missile test since 1998.
North Korea on March 9 switched off military phone and fax lines, used to approve border crossings, and put its 1.2 million-member army on combat alert to protest an ongoing annual US-South Korean military exercise.
It said the exercise involving tens of thousands of troops was aimed at launching a “second Korean War,” while Seoul and its ally Washington said it was a routine annual defensive drill.
The border with South Korea remained shut for a third consecutive day yesterday, stranding hundreds of South Koreans in North Korea.
South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek urged Pyongyang to allow businessmen and investors to travel freely to and from the Seoul-funded industrial site in Kaesong, just north of the border.
“North Korea has repeatedly obstructed the passages of our people, while giving no explanations,” Hyun said yesterday at a meeting with South Korean businessmen.
“North Korea’s unilateral and unfair action like this not only undermines inter-Korean accords but also violates its own regulations,” he said.
After shutting its usual communication channels on March 9, North Korea reopened the frontier on Tuesday but kept the lines switched off, requiring the exchange of hand-delivered letters to approve crossings.
It again on Friday stopped work on approving border crossings.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry has reported that 427 people were not allowed to return home from Kaesong on Friday and on Saturday, with 727 South Koreans staying in the industrial site.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s top nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, planned to hold talks in Tokyo today with his Japanese counterpart and other officials on North Korea’s missile launch and other issues, the Foreign Ministry said.
The border restrictions have caused jitters among South Korean business owners at the complex.
“I have not decided whether I should build more factories ... as the situation keeps deteriorating,” said Yoo Byeong-gi, head of TV parts maker BK Electronics.
The complex combines Seoul’s technology and management expertise with Pyongyang’s cheap labor. It has been a key source of much-needed hard currency for North Korea. More than 100 South Korean factories in Kaesong employ about 38,000 North Korean workers.
Nearly 730 South Koreans were stuck in the Kaesong complex yesterday but they were all believed to be safe, the Unification Ministry said.
North Korea allowed six people — one Australian, three Chinese and two South Koreans — to return to South Korea on Saturday, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
Meanwhile, KCNA said Kim “expressed great satisfaction over the fact that all the servicemen are fully prepared ... to beat back any enemy’s surprise invasion in time and defend the socialist homeland as firm as an iron wall.”
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