North Korea stepped up its campaign Wednesday to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington over the nuclear standoff, as South Korea’s Defense Ministry called for a stronger alliance with the United States.
Pyongyang kept silent on a new U.S. offer of dialogue to discuss curbing its nuclear weapons program.
Instead, it said there is an “increasing danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula” because of the United States, and urged the Koreas to “pool their efforts and condemn and frustrate the U.S. nuclear policy for aggression.”
“It is plain to everyone that if a nuclear war breaks out in Korea, it will bring catastrophic disasters to the Koreans in both parts of Korea,” said a commentary by the KCNA, North Korea’s state-run news agency.
Under a New Year’s policy push, North Korea has been urging more cooperation with South Korea in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between the South and its key ally, the United States.
The South’s Defense Ministry is advocating the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea, saying their withdrawal “could send foreign investors flooding out of the country in fear of instability, throw the economy into turmoil and give North Korea a chance for provocation.”
