Roh gets boost amid N.Korea crisis

Roh gets boost amid N.Korea crisis

Agencies, Seoul

South Korea's new President Roh Moo-hyun got an early boost at a time of tension over North Korea's suspected nuclear ambitions when the opposition-dominated parliament approved his candidate for prime minister on Wednesday.

Predicting that a U.S. invasion of Iraq was "just a matter of time," North Korea said on Wednesday that it could be the U.S. military's next target and urged its armed forces to be ready for war.

The communist government in Pyongyang accuses the United States of planning to send reinforcements into its coastal waters in advance of an invasion. It fired a short-range missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Monday, further escalating tension in the region.

Washington has repeatedly said it wants a peaceful solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear activities, but says it leaves all options open.

In a statement carried Wednesday by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry accused the United States of planning massive war games in South Korea so it could attack the North.

"The U.S. military strike against Iraq is just a matter of time," it said. "The ceaseless sabre-rattling staged by the U.S. in South Korea against this backdrop is creating an extremely tense situation where it may make a pre-emptive strike at the DPRK any time."

DPRK, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the official name of North Korea.

"This compels the army and the people of the DPRK to keep themselves in full readiness by using all means and possibilities necessary to cope with it," the statement added.

On the domestic front, South Korea's parliament cut Roh some slack by approving former Seoul mayor and veteran bureaucrat Goh Kun as prime minister. Goh's anti-corruption record at city hall earned him the nickname "Mr Clean".

Wednesday's National Assembly vote opened the way for Roh to appoint a cabinet on Thursday to tackle Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship, differences with Washington over how to handle North Korea and Asia's fourth-largest economy, which is slowing.

"Goh will receive letter of appointment from Roh at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday (6:45 a.m.Jakarta time) and then will have an inaugurating ceremony. So, I think it will happen later," an official at the prime minister's office told Reuters on the formation of the cabinet.

Technically, the prime minister presents a cabinet list for Roh to approve, although under South Korea's powerful executive presidential system it is the presidential Blue House that calls the shots rather than the premier.

Goh pledged in a statement to reactivate the country's slowing economy and help solve the North Korea crisis.

He also said he would set up a stronger safety system following last week's subway fire in the southern city of Taegu in which more than 180 people were killed.

The vote for Goh gave Roh the premier he wanted, but at a price.

In a trade-off that sparked arguments in the chamber, parliament voted first to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate a North Korea-linked cash-for-summit scandal that broke under the previous administration of Kim Dae-jung.

Kim has confirmed money was sent to the North but said it had been in the national interest.

The opposition party that dominates parliament had insisted on holding the prosecutor vote first. The ruling party's members of parliament left the chamber during that vote.

Roh vowed at his inauguration on Tuesday to reform politics.

"I hope to see the kind of political culture prevail that solves problems through dialog and compromise, not through confrontation and conflict," he said.

The main opposition appeared to reciprocate on Wednesday.

"Our party will spare no effort in providing cooperation if Prime Minister Goh works not for the ruling power but for the country," opposition Grand National Party (GNP) spokesman Park Jong-hee said in a statement.

Roh became South Korea's ninth president on Tuesday amid a deepening crisis over North Korea's suspected nuclear ambitions and just hours after Pyongyang fired a non-ballistic missile in a gesture the White House described as diplomatic extortion.