North Korea renews call for US troop withdrawal, says risk of war increasing

AFP | October 7 2006

North Korea Saturday renewed its call for the United States to withdraw its forces from South Korea amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's threat to test a nuclear weapon.

"The ongoing 'reorganisation' of the US forces in South Korea is part of the arms buildup and a prelude to a war of aggression against the DPRK," the North Korean news agency KCNA said, quoting from a statement by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

South Korea and the United States last month agreed on a programme to reshape their military alliance and give Seoul a bigger role in countering any North Korean attack.

The United States has stationed tens of thousands of troops here since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War but wants to cut the current 29,500 to 25,000 by 2008. It also wants flexibility to deploy them elsewhere in the region if necessary.

"Due to such moves the situation is getting tenser and the danger of a nuclear war is further increasing on the Korean Peninsula as the days go by," the North Korean statement said.

"The South Korean war-like forces are bound to face punishment by the nation and self-destruction as they are hell-bent on the war moves bringing the nation to ruin, serving the US in its moves to stifle the DPRK. The US should pull its aggression forces out of south Korea and its vicinity at once."

The latest North Korean outburst comes amid heightened tensions following Pyongyang's announcement that it plans to test a nuclear weapon.

The UN Security Council unanimously agreed Friday to press North Korea to drop its plans to test an atom bomb, which Japan said could be detonated this weekend.

The non-binding text warned that such a move "would represent a clear threat to international peace and security."

Pyongyang has long tried to drive a wedge in the US-South Korean military alliance which dates back to the Korean War.

The Koreas are still technically at war because they have yet to replace the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War with a peace treaty.

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