North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate
South Korea to avoid being dragged into a "merciless, sacred, retaliatory war".
The North's latest antagonistic
message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean
capital, where the city center was bustling with traffic and offices
operated normally.
Pyongyang has
shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong army for war,
indicating the threat could be partly intended to bolster Kim Jong-un,
30, the third in his family to lead the reclusive country.
None
of the embassies in Seoul appeared to have issued any directives to
their nationals after the warning and airlines reported no changes in
their schedules. Schools catering to foreign pupils worked without
interruption.
The warning, read out
on North Korea's state television in a bulletin that interrupted normal
programming, was the latest threat in weeks of high tension following
U.N. sanctions slapped on Pyongyang for its latest nuclear arms test.
It followed the North's suspension of activity at the Kaesong joint industrial just inside North Korea, all but closing down the last remnant of
cooperation between the neighbors. North Korean workers failed to turn
up on Tuesday.
North Korea had said South Korea was trying to turn the Kaesong complex into a "hotbed of war".
The
warning to foreigners, reported by the KCNA news agency said once war
broke out "it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory
war to be waged by (North Korea).
"It
does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war,"
the agency quoted the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying.
"The
committee informs all foreign institutions and enterprises and
foreigners, including tourists...that they are requested to take
measures for shelter and evacuation in advance for their safety."
Last
week, North Korean authorities advised embassies in Pyongyang to
consider pulling out in case of war, though none appeared to have taken
any such action.
SPECULATION OVER MISSILE LAUNCH, NUCLEAR TEST
Speculation
has grown that the North would launch some sort of provocative action
this week -- perhaps a missile launch or a fresh nuclear weapons test.
A
government source in Seoul said a North Korean medium-range missile,
reported to have been shunted to the east coast, had been tracked and
was believed to be ready for launch.
"Technically, they can launch it as early as tomorrow," the source said.
But
a U.S. embassy official in Seoul said a directive issued last week
saying there was no imminent threat to Americans in South Korea remained
valid. "Our workers are in all our offices today," he said. "We have
not evacuated anyone."
A Philippine foreign ministry spokesman quoted diplomats at its Seoul embassy as saying the situation "remains normal and calm".
Stocks,
which had fallen 4 percent over the past four days, edged higher on
Tuesday despite the warning to foreigners. The won currency moved
little, dipping slightly after the North Korean statement.
Employers
at the Kaesong complex faced uncertainty as the 53,000-strong North
Korean workforce stayed away. A spokesman for textile company Taekwang
Industrial and at least two other firms said production had stopped.
About
475 South Korean workers and factory managers remain in Kaesong, which
generates $2 billion in trade for the impoverished North. The Seoul
government said 77 would return on Tuesday.
North Korean workers at the park have appeared increasingly agitated in recent days, refusing to talk to their colleagues.
Many
Southerners connected with the park bedded down at budget hotels in a
nearby South Korean town in the hope that an order would come from the
North to re-open.
"I have been
feeling anxious now and then. Now it's really preposterous facing this,"
said Shing Dong-chul, 55, a South Korean worker who transports wire
made in Kaesong.
"North Korean
workers didn't talk a lot, but they appeared to have complaints about
Kaesong being closed. They worried whether they would be working or
not."Addressing a cabinet meeting,
South Korean President Park Geun-hye described the suspension of
Kaesong as "very disappointing" and said investors would now shun the
North.
Few experts had expected
Pyongyang to jeopardize Kaesong, which employs more than 50,000 North
Koreans making household goods for 123 South Korean firms.
LAST VESTIGE
The
zone is practically the last vestige of the "Sunshine Policy" of
rapprochement between the two Koreas and a powerful symbol that the
divided country could one day reunify.
South Korean companies are estimated to have invested around $500 million in the park since 2004.
World
leaders have expressed alarm at the crisis and the prospect of a
conflict involving a country claiming to be developing nuclear weapons.
China,
the North's sole diplomatic and financial ally, issued a new call for
calm and restraint, though Beijing's leaders have shown increasing
impatience with Pyongyang.
"We ask
all the relevant sides to bear in mind regional peace and stability and
earnestly protect the legal rights and safety of citizens," Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a briefing.
A
Russian foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement on the ministry's
website, said Moscow was in solidarity with all G8 industrialized
countries "as regards the rejection of Pyongyang's current provocative
and bellicose line of conduct".
The
North is also angry at weeks of joint U.S.-South Korean military
exercises off the coast of the peninsula, with B-2 stealth bombers
dispatched from their U.S. bases.But
the United States announced the postponement last weekend of a
long-planned missile launch, a move officials said was aimed at easing
tensions on the peninsula.
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul this week and the North holds
celebrations, and possibly military demonstrations, next Monday to mark
the birth date of its founder, Kim Il-Sung - the current leader's
grandfather.
In Washington, U.S.
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter urged China to use its influence
with the North and said Moscow wanted similar action from Beijing.But
Chinese criticism of North Korea is unlikely to mean tough new action
against Pyongyang because China would see any collapse of its
troublesome neighbor as a disaster.
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