North Korea Claims Harassment

North Korea on Feb. 28 warned U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to stop “provocations” in the buffer zone dividing the two Koreas or face a “resolute counteraction.”

The warning came as the communist state has been ratcheting up tensions, preparing to launch what it claims is a satellite, declaring an all-out confrontation with the South and arguing over the inter-Korean sea border.

“If the U.S. forces keep behaving arrogantly in the area under the control of the North and the South, the KPA [Korean People's Army] will take a resolute counteraction,” the North’s military said in a statement.

It did not elaborate on what the counteraction would involve.

The statement, carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), was sent Feb. 28 to the South’s military, KCNA said.

According to the statement, U.S. soldiers were stalking in groups in the demilitarized zone, a four-kilometer (2.5-mile)-wide buffer zone dividing the Korean peninsula, at will.

It said 62 U.S. military personnel and 58 vehicles entered the zone and got as close as 100 meters to the military demarcation line (MDL), the zone’s central division, on as many as 66 occasions up to Feb. 20.

On Jan. 5 and Jan. 21, U.S. troops came as close as 30 meters to the MDL and took photographs of a North Korean guard post and monitored the movement of North Korean vehicles, it said.

South Korea’s defense ministry brushed aside the warning, saying U.S. soldiers were engaged in “legitimate” monitoring acts in the South’s side of the buffer zone.

The ministry said it might send a reply to the North’s notice following consultations with authorities concerned.

Fears of a border clash have grown since the North in late January cancelled all peace accords with Seoul, including one recognizing the sea border as an interim frontier.

The North’s military announced last week it is “fully ready” for war with the South.

Pyongyang said Feb. 24 it is preparing to launch a satellite, a move the United States and its allies believe is a pretext for a long-range missile test.

The North is angry at conservative South Korean leader Lee Myung-Bak, whose government has scrapped his predecessors’ policy of reconciliation and exchange with Pyongyang.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to help defend it against the communist North. The Korean war of 1950-53 ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

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