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North Korea Turns Its Combativeness Toward the South North Korea Warns of Retaliation if South Helps Enforce Tightened Sanctions
(about 11 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened on Friday to take “physical countermeasures” against South Korea if it helps enforce tightened sanctions against the besieged North, calling the United Nations-endorsed penalties a “declaration of war” and warning of a prolonged chill in the relations between the two Koreas. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea turned its anger on South Korea on Friday, warning the South Koreans they could suffer “physical countermeasures” for any enforcement of the tightened international sanctions meant to stop its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons activities.
North Korea’s confrontational posture is likely to significantly limit room for the South’s incoming conservative president, Park Geun-hye, to make overtures for reconciliation with the North; like the departing President Lee Myung-bak and President Obama, Ms. Park considers the dismantling of the North’s nuclear program the premise in all of South Korea’s diplomacy toward the North. Since her December election, she has said she will not tolerate the North’s nuclear program and will deal sternly with North Korean provocations. The North Korean warning came a day after it bluntly threatened the United States, saying North Korea had no interest in talks on denuclearizing itself and would forge ahead with its missile and weapons development, with the goal of attaining the capability to hit American territory. North Korea framed the warning, including a threat to stage a third nuclear test, as a deterrent to what it called American hostility and efforts to isolate the country.
In a statement issued in the name of its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which manages relations with South Korea, North Korea gave no hint of what those countermeasures might be. The remarks came just one day after North Korea issued a blunt new threat to the United States, saying it was a “target” because Washington had intensified its “hostile” policy of “stifling” the already impoverished country. While the tone of the message was not unexpected after the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous decision this week on North Korea sanctions, the threats represent a new challenge to President Obama as he begins his second term, and to the incoming conservative president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye. She had signaled she would be more open to the North than the current president, but since her election last month she has said she will not tolerate the North’s nuclear program and will deal sternly with what she has called North Korean provocations.
While its earlier pronouncements more often than not turned out to be bluster, North Korea does have a history of following up some with unexpected military attacks — most recently, its shelling of a border island in 2010 that left four South Koreans dead. It was also blamed for sinking a South Korean warship the same year, leaving 46 sailors dead. In a statement issued in the name of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which manages relations with South Korea, the North gave no hint of what countermeasures were envisioned against the South over enforcement of the sanctions.
Those two episodes brought the two Koreas closer than ever in recent decades to waging a full-scale war, dispelling Washington’s desire to engage North Korea in serious negotiation. While calling for a vigorous enforcement of United Nations sanctions, Glyn Davies, Washington’s special envoy on North Korea, also appealed to the North’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, not to miss the opportunities for a new beginning, stressing that Washington cannot improve ties with the North without progress in inter-Korean relations. While the North does not follow through on many of its threats, it does have a history of unexpected military attacks — most recently, its shelling of a border island in 2010 that left four South Koreans dead. It was also blamed for sinking a South Korean warship the same year, leaving 46 sailors dead, despite North Korean denials.
North Korea’s outburst against South Korea on Friday is the latest installment of a verbal barrage it started after the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning a Dec. 12 rocket launching by the North. The resolution called the launching a violation of earlier United Nations resolutions banning it from testing ballistic-missile technology, and called for tightening sanctions against the country. Those two episodes were among the most serious in decades between the two Koreas, dispelling Washington’s desire to engage North Korea in serious negotiation. While calling for a vigorous enforcement of United Nations sanctions, Glyn Davies, Washington’s special envoy on North Korea, also appealed Thursday to the North’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, not to miss opportunities for a new beginning, stressing that Washington could not improve ties with the North without progress in inter-Korean relations.
“If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. ‘sanctions,’ the D.P.R.K. will take strong physical countermeasures against it,” said North Korea, using the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “ ‘Sanctions’ mean a war and a declaration of war against us.” North Korea’s outburst against South Korea on Friday was the latest installment of a verbal barrage it started after the Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution condemning a Dec. 12 rocket launching by the North. The resolution called the launching a violation of earlier United Nations resolutions banning it from testing ballistic missile technology, and called for tightening sanctions against the country. Especially notable was that China, the longtime North Korean protector and advocate, voted for the resolution.
The United Nations resolution was the fifth against the North for its rocket and nuclear programs since 1993. It calls for tightening existing sanctions, including expanding a travel ban on North Korean officials and freezing the assets of North Korean banks and other agencies accused of engaging in shipments and financing for the North’s missile and nuclear programs. It also broadened the means for United Nations member nations to intercept and confiscate cargo headed for the North. Referring to the South Koreans, North Korea said: “If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. ‘sanctions,’ the D.P.R.K. will take strong physical countermeasures against it,” using the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “ ‘Sanctions’ mean a war and a declaration of war against us.”
Since the Security Council resolution, North Korea has said it will conduct a nuclear test and launch more long-range rockets and that there will be no more talks on the “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, a main goal of Washington’s thus far unsuccessful diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula for the last two decades. The United Nations resolution was the fifth against the North for its rocket and nuclear programs since 1993. It calls for tightening existing sanctions, including expanding a travel ban on North Korean officials and broadening the means for United Nations member nations to intercept and confiscate cargo headed for the North.
With Friday’s threat against the South, North Korea, under the young Mr. Kim, appeared to be following a well-worn track established under his father, Kim Jong-il, before his death in December 2011: a cycle of North Korean provocation like a rocket launching, United Nations condemnation, then North Korean warnings of “physical countermeasures,” which were sometimes followed by provocative actions, like a nuclear test. Ms. Park’s office said Friday that the president-elect would soon send a high-level delegation to Washington for a policy consultation at which North Korea was expected to be a focus of discussion.
While this familiar cycle repeated itself in recent years, North Korea also steadily bolstered its nuclear and missile capabilities. The North Korean nuclear crisis began in the early 1990s with nothing but a tiny amount of fissile material North Korea was suspected of gleaning from its experimental research reactor. It has since accumulated enough plutonium for an estimated half dozen nuclear bombs, built a full-scale uranium-enrichment program, conducted two nuclear tests and made strides toward building intercontinental ballistic missiles that American officials fear could one day be tipped with nuclear warheads. The United Nations sanctions and the North’s angry reactions dissipated early hopes that changes of leadership in the North, the South and in the Obama administration would open the way for easing tensions. North Korea, which has lived through American-led trade embargoes, considers itself a small yet proud nation struggling to maintain its independence in the face of an “imperialist” plot to erase it from the earth. It has typically called any new round of American-inspired sanctions a declaration of war.
On Friday, North Korea warned that the South should expect a continuing confrontation and even potential military clashes on the Korean Peninsula if the hard-line policy of the departing President Lee was inherited by Ms. Park. For the United States, a new entanglement over North Korea could distract from the American focus on pressuring Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which the Iranians say is peaceful but which the West suspects is meant to develop nuclear weapons capability. Talks aimed at resolving that dispute are stalled.
“Now that the South Korean puppet conservative group is more desperately kicking up a racket against the D.P.R.K. over its nuclear and missile issues with the U.S., there will be no more discussion on denuclearization between the North and the South in the future,” North Korea said. “As long as the South Korean puppet group of traitors persistently pursues a hostile policy toward the D.P.R.K., we will never negotiate with anyone.” Some strategic weapons policy analysts suggested that North Korea’s defiant tone, and the relatively muted American response, had set an example for Iran by demonstrating what can be achieved when an American adversary is armed with nuclear weapons. Iranian leaders, like North Korea’s Kim family, view America as a nuclear-armed bully that respects only the threat of force.
In its statement, the North also said a 1992 joint declaration in which the two Koreas committed themselves not to pursue nuclear weapons was now completely invalid. Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., said he feared that North Korea was now intent on demonstrating the ability to produce a far more powerful nuclear weapon than the two relatively small nuclear devices it had tested so far.
“President-elect Park makes it clear that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and further provocations against the South will not be tolerated,” Rhee In-je, Ms. Park’s special envoy to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, told reporters on Thursday. “In particular, she strongly urges North Korea to refrain from further worsening the situation by conducting a third nuclear test.” “If you think international politics is basically about power and that power is basically about armaments, then having a small number of fission devices is not good enough,” he said. “You want big nuclear devices.” (American intelligence officials believe North Korea has enough plutonium for roughly 6 to 10 weapons.)
Ms. Park’s office said on Friday that the president-elect would soon send a high-level delegation to Washington for a policy consultation at which North Korea was expected to be a focus of discussion. Others dismissed the idea that Iran is taking any political cues from North Korea. They noted that Iran remained a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and that Iranian leaders had repeatedly asserted that they had no interest in nuclear weapons.
The United Nations sanctions and the North’s angry reactions dissipated early hopes that changes of leadership in the North, the South and the United States would open the way for easing tensions. But some analysts said North Korea was just escalating tensions ahead of dialogue to increase its leverage. “They see North Korea is starving and isolated with no resources whatsoever,” said Gary G. Sick, an American academic and Iran expert who served on the National Security Council under the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations. He called the connectivity on the nuclear issue between Iran and North Korea “a Western argument — I’ve never seen anybody in Iran make that argument.”
North Korea, which has lived through American-led trade embargoes throughout its existence, considers itself a small yet proud nation struggling for independence in the face of an “imperialist” plot to erase it from the earth. It has typically called any new round of American-inspired sanctions a declaration of war.

Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, and Rick Gladstone from New York.