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April 7, 2013 5:28 pm
Seoul on alert over North Korea threat
By Anna Fifield in Washington, Song Jung-a in Seoul and Jamil Anderlini in Bo'ao, Hainan
©Reuters
The crisis over North Korean belligerence deepened on Sunday as officials in Washington and Seoul warned that Pyongyang could act on its threats to launch a missile this week, ahead of the anniversary of founding president Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15.
The former leader's birthday is usually marked with great fanfare, sometimes including demonstrations of military might, and North Korea often chooses significant dates for provocations such as missile tests.
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The US postponed an intercontinental ballistic missile test originally planned for this week, amid concerns it risked heightening tensions further.
In Seoul, a senior South Korean security official said North Korea might fire a missile on or around Wednesday, following Pyongyang's warnings that foreign diplomats and South Korean companies operating in the joint Kaesong industrial park on the northern side of the border should submit departure plans by that day.
Kim Jang-soo, President Park Geun-hye's national security director, said the notice to diplomats and Kaesong workers were all "calculated acts".
"We think North Korea may engage in some provocative acts such as a missile launch around the date," Mr Kim told other security officials at a meeting on Sunday, adding that the threats appeared to be aimed at pressuring Seoul to change its North Korea strategy and start dialogue with Pyongyang.
Earlier, Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, said in a speech to the Bo'ao forum in Hainan province that no country should be allowed to throw Asia into chaos, in a veiled rebuke to Pyongyang, which counts Beijing as its closest ally.
Mr Xi, who has come under pressure from the US and its allies to do more to rein in North Korea, said "no one should be allowed to throw a region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," without naming any specific country.
"Countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all contribute their share in maintaining and enhancing peace," he said at a Chinese business forum attended by dozens of national leaders from Asia, Africa and Europe.
Western diplomats attending the conference on Sunday said Mr Xi's intentionally ambiguous wording appeared to be a veiled warning to Pyongyang not to push things too far but could also have been partly directed at Washington, which is often accused by Chinese leaders of meddling in the region.
North Korea's warning to diplomats is the latest in a series of provocations, after the UN tightened economic sanctions following its third nuclear test in February.
North Korea has declared a "state of war" with its southern neighbour, blocked access to Kaesong and threatened a nuclear attack on the US. In response, the US has deployed a missile-defence battery to Guam, a US territory and one of the key American military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, and flown nuclear capable B-2 bombers across the Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to US President Barack Obama, said the White House "wouldn't be surprised" if North Korea conducted a missile test, amid evidence it had been preparing launch sites.
He declined to discuss "hypotheticals" about how the US would respond if North Korea did launch a missile, saying that Mr Obama believed North Korea and its volatile young leader, Kim Jong-eun, "needs to stop its actions".
The Pentagon has also decided to delay the launch of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, initially scheduled for Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test is not related to North Korea or to the joint military exercises that the US and South Korea have been conducting.
"But given recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it's prudent and wise to take steps that avoid any misperception or chance of manipulation," a senior defence official told the Financial Times. "The US will conduct another test soon and remains strongly committed to our nuclear deterrence capabilities."