North Korea: U.S. spying ahead of war

[Caspar]

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- North Korea has accused the United States of preparing for war by increasing spy flights over its territory.

The claims come on the same day that South Korea's new president vowed to push for a swift and peaceful end to the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang has in the past week accused Washington of intruding into its airspace with reconnaissance aircraft but on Saturday specified its gripe.

"The U.S. imperialists committed over 180 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK [North Korea] in February by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes on different missions," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

RC-135 strategic reconnaissance planes have "illegally intruded into the air above the territorial waters in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] ... almost every day from February 21 and made shuttle flights in the air for hours to spy on major targets in its east coastal area," the report said.

Other flights were carried out by U-2 and EP-3 aircraft, KCNA reported.

Along with joint South Korean and U.S. attack drills, KCNA concluded: "All these espionage flights and air war games clearly indicate the desperate efforts of the U.S. to start a war against the DPRK."

U.S. officials are yet to respond to the claim but Washington has repeatedly denied planning any attack in North Korea. But the Bush administration has stated it was keeping all options open.

Calamity warning
Meanwhile, in his first policy speech since taking office, South Korean Presidet Roh Moo-hyun told his country he "firmly opposed" North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Roh said he was committed to pursing a peaceful resolution as the safety of the South Korean people was his number one concern.

"North Korea's nuclear issue is the task we should resolve immediately," Roh said. "If peace on the Korean Peninsula is broken, we cannot afford the huge disaster it would trigger."

As Roh spoke, thousands of South Koreans rallied in Seoul to call for a tough stance against North Korea.

About 20,000 mostly elderly and conservative protesters called for stronger military ties with the U.S. and firmer action against Pyongyang's suspected nuclear program.

The rally failed to draw the crowd of 500,000 that organizers had hoped for.

The six-month-old crisis has shown no signs of abating. It began in October when the U.S. said North Korea had admitted to secretly pursuing nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 deal.

North Korea expelled U.N. weapons inspectors, pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and said it would restart its mothballed nuclear facilities.

On Friday, U.S. officials said "activity" had been detected at North Korea's reprocessing facility in Yongbyon that could lead to spent plutonium being reprocessed to produce five to eight nuclear weapons. ('Activity' detected)

Pyongyang has been demanding direct talks with the U.S. as the only way to resolve the dispute. Washington though says it won't be blackmailed into dialogue and insisted a resolution is found via broad multilateral diplomacy.


Pyongyang claims U-2 (pictured), EP-3 and RC-135 aircraft have been patrolling its skies.


Bron: www.cnn.com