Clinton at DMZ as warning sounded over North Korea
PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates made an unusual joint visit to the heavily defended zone dividing the two Koreas amid a warning the peninsula faced a dangerous new period.
Relations between the Koreas have plunged back into the freezer after the South accused its reclusive neighbour of sinking one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies it had a role.
"We continue to send a message to the North: that there is another way," Clinton said on Wednesday at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that has divided the peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and for which there is still no formal peace treaty.
"But until they change direction, the United States stands firmly on behalf of the people and the government of the Republic of Korea."
Gates earlier announced the naval and air exercises would begin next weekend that will include the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and F-22 Raptor aircraft.
The planned exercises have been criticised by North Korea which accused the two allies of using them to prepare for an attack.
China, North Korea's only major ally, has also voiced its unease at the drills in its region and state television on Tuesday showed the Chinese navy conducting exercises that included helicopters and a submarine.
Clinton and Gates peered through binoculars at Observation Point Ouellette, a sand-bagged perch on a hilltop in the DMZ manned by U.S. and South Korean soldiers. Under a slight drizzle, a massive North Korean flag was flying in the distance.
Nearly two million troops flank 4-kilometre wide strip of land that has kept the two Koreas apart for nearly 60 years and is one of the last relics of the Cold War.
The retired general nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to be his intelligence chief said on Tuesday that the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan may herald a "dangerous new period" of direct attacks by Pyongyang on the South.
The warning by James Clapper at his Senate confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence put a spotlight on growing concern within the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon about what they see as the North's increasingly unpredictable behaviour.
The concerns coincide with worries about the health of iron ruler Kim Jong-il who appears to be trying to engineer the succession for his youngest son as leader of one of the world's most isolated countries and which has been pressing ahead with efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal.
NORTH KOREA CRITICAL
North Korean television late on Tuesday denounced the planned U.S.-South Korea naval and air exercises that begin July 25 off the Korean peninsula's east coast.
"The naval exercises threaten our territory and peace and security in our country," factory worker, Rim Dong-hun told North Korean state television. "It makes my blood boil."
North Korea has repeatedly argued that it has no choice but to build a nuclear deterrent in the face of U.S. aggression. Analysts say Kim uses the constant threat of war as justification to focus on maintaining one of the world's largest standing armies while the economy falls into near ruin.
"In the 20 years since I last climbed that observation tower and looked out across the DMZ, it's stunning how little has changed up there and yet how much South Korea continues to grow and prosper," said Gates. "The North, by contrast, stagnates in isolation and deprivation."
South Korea, a generous aid and investment partner for a decade under liberal presidents, has all but cut contact with North Korea under conservative President Lee Myung-bak.
Pyongyang, though it routinely denounces Lee as a "traitor," has recently signalled it wants a return to denuclearisation talks with regional powers that stalled in 2008.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Writing by Brett Cole, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)