***THE UNREPORTED TRUTH ON KOREA***
By J. Adams
October 29th, 1996
"Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!"
('King John'; Act II, sc.1)
As explained in my "Global War Articles", a new war is going to be unleashed on the Korean Peninsula most likely as part of a strategic diversion. Moscow likely plans to open the way for an onslaught against Israel and the Middle East by diverting U.S. military forces into East Asia.
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
October 29, 1996
"North Korean spokesman denounces military exercises,
urges USA to hold talks"
(Source: KCNA news agency, Pyongyang, in English 0900 gmt 28 Oct 96)
A spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry has called on the
USA to start negotiations on a new peacekeeping mechanism to replace
the outdated armistice agreement. Denouncing the latest joint military
exercises launched by the USA and South Korea as "a replica" of the
annual Team Spirit exercises, he said the side driving the Korean
Peninsula towards war is the USA, not North Korea. If the USA
continues to ignore the North's good intentions "our countermeasure
will be all the more legitimate and the DPRK-US relations will be
driven to an irrevocable phase" , he warned. The following is the text
of a report by the North Korean news agency KCNA:
Pyongyang, 28th October: A spokesman of the DPRK Foreign Ministry
issued a statement today denouncing the "Foal Eagle 96" joint military
exercises launched by the United States and the South Korean
authorities against the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea].
The statement says:
Involved in the joint military exercises are, reportedly, over
34,000 US troops, including those from the US mainland and the
Pacific, and hundreds of thousands of the South Korean puppet army
soldiers and even Independence, an aircraft carrier of the US Seventh
Fleet, whose participation is the first of its kind.
This means the exercises for this year are the largest in scale in
some 30 years since their start.
The United States and the South Korean authorities have announced
that the current exercises are intended to increase the "capacity of
joint operation" and confirm the US "security commitment" to South
Korea as well as their "alliance relations" .
Furthermore, what cannot be overlooked is that high-ranking US
officials, timed to coincide with the exercises, are calling for a "
military counteraction" to the DPRK without hesitation.
In the long run, it is clear that the current "Foal Eagle" is just
a replica, not only in scale and content but also in the political
nature, of the "Team Spirit" joint military exercises, which had been
staged by the US and the South Korean authorities against the DPRK
annually in the past period.
The United States is ceaselessly shipping to South Korea a large
quantity of up-to-date military equipment as war supplies in storage.
At the same time, the US is staging the "Foal Eagle" war games
equivalent to the "Team Spirit" that has been well known as war
exercises against the DPRK, and inspiring the South Korean authorities
to provoke another war. The facts evidently show that the very one
who drives the situation of the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war
and resorts to undisguised war preparations is none other than the
United States.
The US authorities have so far lost no chance to express "concern"
for peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and repeated their
promise to ensure "validity" of the Korean Armistice Agreement and
continued implementation of the DPRK-US agreed framework.
If it is true, the United States should make clear whether their
activities intended for invasion and war, tension and confrontation
are compatible with the agreed framework, which promises a joint
effort for the denuclearization, peace and security of the Korean
Peninsula, and with the Korean Armistice Agreement, which bans the
introduction of military equipment and war supplies and hostile
military action in the peninsula.
It should also clarify whether the largest-scale "Foal Eagle" joint
military exercises accord with the recent presidential statement of
the UN Security Council which calls for banning any action intended to
aggravate the tension on the Korean Peninsula and destroy its peace
and stability.
It is a big mistake to think that the essence of the issue can be
distorted with falsity and deception today.
It is not the DPRK's missile test or some "incident" that
aggravates the situation of the Korean Peninsula.
The point at issue is to renounce the conception of confrontation
and war, a leftover of the cold war, and provide an actual guarantee
for a lasting peace and security.
More than once we have asked the US to have negotiations for
establishing a new peacekeeping mechanism which will replace the
outdated armistice system in the Korean Peninsula.
Only when this proposal is carried into practice, is it possible to
open a practical and definite way of removing all the factors which
aggravate the tension and may trigger off war on the Korean Peninsula,
and ensuring a lasting peace and security.
If the US intends to solve the issue with strength as it did in the
past, persistently ignoring the DPRK's good intention and magnanimity,
our countermeasure will be all the more legitimate and the DPRK-US
relations will be driven to an irrevocable phase.
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BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
October 28, 1996, Monday
"North Korea: USA must act 'with discretion';
'any accident may ignite war'"
(Text of report by the North Korean news agency KCNA)
Pyongyang, 26th October: The director of the US Central
Intelligence Agency recently visited South Korea and discussed with
the South Korean puppets "joint measures to prevent armed provocation"
of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea].
'Nodong Sinmun' today brands this as clear evidence that the United
States does not want detente on the Korean Peninsula and improved ties
with the DPRK but intends to stifle it.
The news analyst says: The United States talks a great deal about "
armed provocation" of the DPRK while engaging itself in preparations
for aggression and war against the DPRK. It is the height of
shamelessness and hypocrisy of the aggressor.
The ulterior intention of the US is to stifle the DPRK with
strength while calling for "peace" and "detente" on the Korean
Peninsula. The true colours of the US have been laid bare, however.
The situation helps the DPRK to feel how hypocritical the US call
for detente on this peninsula and improved ties with the DPRK is.
The DPRK and the United States are technically at war. In this
situation, any accident may ignite war.
The Korean people and their invincible revolutionary armed forces
will never tolerate any surprise provocation of the enemy.
The United States must act with discretion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reuters North American Wire
October 28, 1996
"U.S.-S.Korea start joint military exercise"
The United States and South Korea began a joint military exercise
on Monday as tension remained high over the intrusion by a North
Korean submarine into South Korean waters last month.
The annual field exercise, codenamed "Foal Eagle '96," involves a
U.S. aircraft carrier battle group, about 34,000 U.S. troops and most
of South Korea's 655,000 military personnel, a U.S. military spokesman
said.
About 2,500 U.S. servicemen would be deployed from overseas for the
exercise lasting until November 10, while the other Americans were
part of a force of 37,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea to deter
any agression from North Korea.
"The exercise is aimed at testing rear area protection operations
and major command, control and communication systems," the spokesman
said.
North Korea has described the excercise as "provocative" and
demanded that Seoul and Washington cancel it.
"Facts indicate that they intend to enlarge the Foal Eagle exercise
more than ever before," Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper
said on Sunday.
"This is an open threat to the DPRK ( North Korea) and a
premeditated provocation to aggravate confrontation and military
tension on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea has also blamed Seoul for worsening tensions on the
peninsula over the submarine landing of 26 North Koreans on an east
coast beach on September 18, all but three of whom have since been
killed or captured.
Pyongyang, which claims the submarine drifted into southern waters
after developing engine trouble, has demanded Seoul return the bodies
along with survivors and the vessel.
The South Korean defence ministry has described the incursion as a
spying mission in preparation for wider military provocation.
South and North Korea have remained technically at war since the
1950-53 Korean War.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times
October 22, 1996
"North Korea May Be Set to Test-Fire Missile Able to Reach Japan"
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a missile capable of
reaching Japan, adding to anxieties here about tensions on the Korean
Peninsula, American and Japanese officials say.
North Korea has given no hint that it is planning a test. But
experts in Japan and the United States said that a launching platform
had been moved out of the assembly plant and that North Korean
observation ships had been sent to the area in the Sea of Japan where
the missile presumably would land.
"This is a very serious issue," said the State Department
spokesman, Nicholas Burns. "We think it would be destabilizing in
north Asia to have these types of tests undertaken. North Korea needs
to think very carefully about this kind of action."
American diplomats are reported to have strongly pressed North
Korean counterparts to cancel the test, but it is unclear how the
North will react. By some accounts, one or two delegations from the
Middle East -- possibly from Syria and Iran -- are in North Korea,
apparently to witness the test with a view to buying the missile.
North Korea already has some 1,700 Scud missiles, but the test
preparations have created anxiety because they appear to be for a more
advanced missile, the Rodong 1, with a range of about 625 miles. That
would be enough to reach a broad swath of Japan, though probably not
Tokyo or American military bases in Okinawa.
Japanese newspapers have printed alarming maps, showing readers
just what cities could be within range of a North Korean Rodong 1. The
missile, which apparently was last tested in May 1993, has been under
development for many years, and some experts believe that it will be
deployed in the coming months.
North Korea has also alarmed some intelligence experts with a
series of puzzling movements of troops and equipment in the last
couple of weeks. Officials said that tanks, military aircraft and
troops had been redeployed, but that the movements seemed to end as
mysteriously as they began.
"What they've done is very unusual," a American Government analyst
said. "Everything they've done has been to reduce our warning time in
the event of an attack and make their equipment more lethal."
"We watch the North Koreans pretty carefully," said Jim Coles 3d, a
civilian spokesman for the United States forces stationed in South
Korea. "The one thing that we can't do is get inside their heads and
know what they're going to do ahead of time. They work pretty hard at
being unpredictable."
Tensions have run high on the Korean Peninsula since a North Korean
infiltration submarine ran aground in South Korea last month. As
threats and denunciations flew back and forth, South Korea threatened
to hold off on construction of a nuclear reactor in North Korea. That
threatened to scuttle a landmark project under which the North agreed
to freeze its nuclear weapons program.
With the whole deal threatening to unravel, a senior State
Department official, Winston Lord, traveled to South Korea last week
to reassure officials there of American support and to win cooperation
again from South Korea. Mr. Lord managed to rescue the nuclear deal,
at least for the time being, but North Korea then denounced Mr. Lord's
visit to South Korea for its emphasis on American-South Korean
military cooperation.
"The United States must be mindful," said the North Korean
statement, issued Friday, "that our people and people's army will
never pardon any act of encroaching upon their sovereignty but mete
out a thousand-fold punishment."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
AFX News
October 24, 1996
"North Korea says detained American 'spy' to be punished"
SEOUL (AFX) - Detained American Evan Carl Hunzike has confessed to
being a "spy" and will be punished, The Korea Central News Agency of
North Korea reported.
"We make clear that Hunzike is a criminal who infiltrated into the
DPRK (North Korea) in violation of its law and a spy," the KCNA said
in a despatch monitored here.