N Korea threatens to junk war pact

North Korea demands a non-aggression pact with the US, while Washington wants multilateral talks to press Pyongyang to verifiably halt its suspected atomic programme.

It was not immediately clear whether the statement, from the North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA), was anything more than fresh brinkmanship.

There was no sign of unusual tension at the Panmunjom truce village which straddles the North-South border.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who retires next week, said the nuclear crisis had forced him to consider all security threats to South Korea, but ‘‘my conclusion is that I believe the danger of war on the Korean peninsula is slight — in fact, non-existent’’.

International ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said it viewed the latest North Korean threat as just ‘‘rhetoric’’, but was watching developments closely.

‘‘The KPA side will be left with no option but to take a decisive step to abandon its commitment to implement the Armistice Agreement as a signatory to it and free itself from the binding force of all its provisions, regarding the possible sanctions to be taken by the US side against the DPRK (North Korea),’’ the North’s army said in a statement.

‘‘If the US side continues violating and misusing the Armistice Agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the DPRK to remain bound to the AA uncomfortably,’’ said the statement, issued by the official Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA said the statement was issued by the KPA mission at Panmunjom, 50 km north of Seoul, as the crisis over North Korea’s suspected drive to make atomic weapons entered the fifth month and just a week before President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is inaugurated.

In Seoul, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said no unusual moves by the North Koreans were sighted and that the comments appeared to be more of Pyongyang’s sabre-rattling as it agitates for bilateral talks with Washington over the nuclear crisis. (Reuters)