South Korea urges vigilance against unstable North

South Korea urges vigilance against unstable North

SEOUL (Reuter): South Korea yesterday called for "extraordinary alertness" and military readiness against North Korea, saying a top Pyongyang official's defection highlighted serious instability in the Stalinist North.

Prime Minister Lee Soo-sung said last week's defection of Hwang Jang-yop, one of 11 powerful secretaries of the ruling Workers Party along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, had sent shock waves along the divided Korean peninsula.

Separately, a Seoul newspaper said it had documents revealing plans by other North Korean officials to flee. Hwang still remains marooned in South Korea's Beijing consular office, where he sought political asylum last Wednesday.

"The defection of secretary Hwang Jang-yop, who belongs to the core force of the North Korean leadership, vividly displays the shaking of the ideological foundation that has supported the North Korean system amid economic disasters," he said.

Lee told parliament that Pyongyang had increasingly deployed offensive forces near the border with the South, despite an economic crisis and chronic food shortages.

A military spokesman said Lee was referring to the North's defense build-up in recent years and that there had been no additional troops mounted at the tense border in the past week.

"I think what we need at this point of time...is extraordinary alertness and realization," Lee said. Seoul would give top priority to security on the peninsula, he added.

Lee said North Korea could resort to "direct or indirect provocation" in the run-up to South Korea's presidential elections in December.

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of ordering agents to shoot defector Li Il-nam, a nephew of Kim Jong-il's ex-wife, near Seoul in an apparent warning to the South and potential asylum seekers. Li, known here as Lee Hang-yong, remains in a coma.

The leading Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported Hwang told U.S. intelligence officials that five to seven Pyongyang officials, most of them more senior than him, also plan to seek asylum.

The Foreign Ministry on Monday denied similar news reports but Dong-A said it had obtained a copy of the minutes from the meeting. The ministry had said no U.S. official had met Hwang.

However, Seoul officials have said more senior North Korean officials could seek to defect, further heightening tension between the two rivals engaged in the last Cold War standoff.

Prime minister Lee said his country would spare no diplomatic efforts to allow Hwang, ranked 24th in Pyongyang's hierarchy, to be granted political asylum.

Pyongyang has hinted it may accept Hwang's defection, saying it would dismiss him if he sought asylum, Seoul officials said.

"It is certain North Korea is changing its attitude," said Kim Kyung-woong, a senior official at the state South-North Dialog Office. "North Korea appears to be acknowledging that things are not developing as it wants in the Hwang Jang-yop case. North Korea is widening its options."

Pyongyang had earlier maintained that Seoul kidnapped Hwang. North Korea's Foreign Ministry, commenting on Hwang's defection, said late on Monday: "Our stand is simple and clear. If he was kidnapped, we cannot tolerate it and we will take decisive countermeasures."

But a ministry statement added: "If he sought asylum, it means that he is a renegade and he is dismissed."

Another senior Seoul official said: "The statement's wording signals that North Korea might accept Hwang's defection."

Seoul officials monitoring North Korean media also said that Pyongyang radio yesterday reported that Kim Jong-il had said: "Cowards, leave if you want to".

But they said Kim did not name Hwang in his remarks and such radio reports had been broadcast even before Hwang's defection.