February 06, 1999
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| February 06, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| The Koreas North Korea said to prepare for ''imminent'' attack by U.S. North Korean diplomats in Moscow and other former Soviet countries' capitals say privately that their government has reliable information about imminent plans of Washington to deliver a ''surgical'' air strike against suspected nuclear targets in the DPRK, reports a group of Russian analysts. Analysts at the Center for Contemporary International Problems at the Russian Diplomatic Academy in Moscow quote a ''high-ranking'' North Korean diplomat as saying: ''Since the Americans got away with the bombings in Iraq, they have decided that the time is ripe to repeat the trick in Korea." Writing in ''DPRK Reort,'' a bimonthly edited by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, the Russian analysts report that the North Korean officials have let it be known that their country ''won't be as passive as Iraq." Rather, they report, the North Koreans say Pyongyang is prepared to strike back at Seoul and Japan and ''once and forever teach Americans a lesson.'' One diplomat from Pyongyang is quoted as adding, ''If Washington takes the challenge and unleashes an all-out war against the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name], it will be only for the better. We'll settle all accounts with the enemy." The Russian analysts say they are taking these threats by Pyongyang seriously because they believe that Washington, euphoric with its latest successes in the MiddleEast, might well undertake an attack on ''suspected'' facilities in North Korea. They also don't exclude a possibility that North Korea might strike back. The Russian experts also express surprise at the attention given lately in theUnited States to North Korea's underground facilities and on-going construction work. They point out that it has long been an open secret that there are thousands of underground sites in the DPRK. Following the example of Maoist China, North Koreans began to dig those sites back in the 1960s to hide plants and factories, power stations and research laboratories, hospitals and military units. The Russians say they believe that conservative forces in Washington are nothappy with the current ''soft'' line towards North Korea and are using thecurrent construction in an attempt to discredit this line with ''emptyaccusations'' against Pyongyang. In contrast with these conservative U.S.officials, experts in Moscow don't see anything unusual, illegal, ornecessarily threatening in the recent excavation work by North Koreans ontheir own territory. (For current and back editions of DPRK Report, link to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies http://cns.miis.edu) | |||||||||
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