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UP FRONTSaturday 5 March 2016
Syria opposition: North Korea, on defensive after
sanctions, makes nuclear threat
Circumstances not suitable for peace talks
HYUNG-JIN KIM
BASSEM MROUE Riad Hijab, who heads organizations by the United Associated Press
Associated Press the opposition High Nego- Nations. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrians in reb- tiations Committee, said British Foreign Minister Philip Jong Un ordered his military to be ready to launch
el-held areas took advan- that circumstances were Hammond, also in Paris, nuclear strikes at any time, state media reported Fri-
tage Friday of a week-long not suitable to resume the said the hope is that ulti- day, an escalation in rhetoric targeting Seoul and
cease-fire to rally against talks, adding that the Unit- mately a cease-fire would Washington that may not reflect the country’s ac-
President Bashar Assad, ed States has “made many allowSyria’s moderate op- tual nuclear capacity.
demanding his resignation, concessions” to Russia, position and backers of the The threats are part of the authoritarian govern-
while a top opposition fig- one of the main backers of Assad government to work ment’s ramped-up propaganda push to signal
ure said his side believes it Assad. Despite the truce, out a solution and fight the strength at home and abroad in the face of what it
is “not suitable” for peace Syrian military operations extremists together. portrays as an effort by South Korea and the United
talks to resume in Geneva are still ongoing, detainees Syria’s indirect peace talks States to overthrow its leadership.
next week. have not been released broke down in Geneva on In North Korea’s first official response to the U.N.’s re-
Meanwhile, France’s presi- by Damascus and little aid Feb. 3, amid a government cent adoption of harsh sanctions over its recent nu-
clear test and long-range rocket launch, the North
Syrian soldiers pose for a picture in Maarzaf, about 15 kilometers west of Hama, Syria. Local lead- also warned Friday it will bolster its nuclear arsenal
ers and elders signed a declaration pledging to abide by a truce in Maarzaf. The Russian military and make unspecified “strong and merciless physi-
has helped mediate signing the document. cal” measures. A government statement called the
U.N. sanctions the “most heinous international crimi-
(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) nal act” aimed at isolating and stifling the country.
“The only way for defending the sovereignty of our
dent expressed optimism, is entering rebel-held be- offensive under the cover nation and its right to existence under the present
saying discussions about sieged areas, Hijab said in of Russian airstrikes. extreme situation is to bolster up nuclear force both
a political transition in Syr- Paris. He spoke shortly after The partial truce has dra- in quality and quantity,” the North’s official Korean
ia will “accelerate” with the French President Francois matically reduced overall Central News Agency said, paraphrasing Kim. It said
truce holding across the Hollande, after speaking violence across the devas- Kim stressed “the need to get the nuclear warheads
war-wracked country. with the leaders of Russia, tated country — a remark- deployed for national defense always on standby so
The rallies in rebel-held ar- Germany, Britain and Italy, able accomplishment in a as to be fired any moment.”
eas were small — hundreds said from Paris that there war that has killed at least North Korea has threatened nuclear war in the past,
protested in the eastern was agreement to take 250,000 people, displaced but it is unclear just how advanced the country’s nu-
sector of the city of Alep- advantage of the truce half the population and clear program really is. It is thought to have a hand-
po, in the western Waer to coordinate humanitar- decimated towns and vil- ful of crude atomic bombs, but there is considerable
neighborhood of Homs ian aid and open a pro- lages. Because the cease- outside debate about the state of its arsenal.
and in Idlib province — but cess of political transition fire agreement excludes Most experts say it’s highly unlikely that North Korea
they reflected a sense of in Syria — though he cau- areas held by the Islamic currently has a reliable intercontinental ballistic mis-
relief amid the cease-fire tioned about advancing State group and the Nusra sile capable of reaching U.S. shores, let alone the
that has mostly held since it too quickly. Front, some of the continu- ability to arm it with a miniaturized nuclear warhead.
went into effect across the High-level international dis- ing violence is not tech- But North Korea can probably place nuclear war-
country last Saturday. cussions about Syria have nically a breach of the heads on its shorter-range Scuds and its 1,300-kilo-
The protesters called on intensified since the cease- truce. Also, civilian casual- meter-range Rodong missiles, which can strike tar-
Assad’s government to re- fire went into effect, al- ties have dropped sharply gets in South Korea and Japan, said Lee Choon
lease detainees from pris- though the truce does not since the cease-fire went Geun, an analyst from South Korea’s state-funded
ons and lift several sieges encompass the whole of into effect. “This cease- Science and Technology Policy Institute. Other ana-
on opposition areas — is- the country. The “cessation fire, cessation of hostilities, lysts, however, question this.
sues that have been key of hostilities” deal does not is by no means perfect but Kim issued the nuclear threat while guiding the test-
demands of the opposi- include the Islamic State it has reduced the level of firing of a new large-caliber multiple launch rocket
tion ahead of peace talks group and al-Qaida’s affili- violence. It has created an system, in a likely reference to six short-range projec-
planned to resume in Ge- ate in Syria, the Nusra Front, opportunity for some hu- tiles that Seoul says North Korea fired on Thursday.
neva next Wednesday. as well as other militant fac- manitarian access,” said South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the projectiles,
In a blow to those plans, tions designated terrorist Hammond.q fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew
about 100 to 150 kilometers (60 to 90 miles) and
landed in the sea. Ministry officials said they couldn’t
confirm whether they were fired by the weapons sys-
tem referred to by the North Korean news agency.
The report did not say when the test-firing occurred.
Thursday’s firings were seen as a “low-level” response
to the U.N. sanctions, with North Korea unlikely to
launch any major provocation until its landmark rul-
ing Workers’ Party convention in May, according to
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North
Korean Studies in Seoul.
The U.N. Security Council sanctions, the toughest of
their kind in two decades, include mandatory in-
spections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea
by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of
small arms and light weapons to the North; and the
expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in
“illicit activities.”q
