Global Security Newswire

North Korea said today it would respond with military force if one of its ships were boarded under a U.S.-led program to interdict illicit transport of weapons of mass destruction and their component materials, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 26).

The warning came one day after South Korea said it would join the Proliferation Security Initiative and two days after Pyongyang's second-ever nuclear test (see related GSN story, today).

"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," the state-operated Korean Central News Agency quoted an army spokesman as saying.

North Korea, a known exporter of missile and weapons technology, has been seen as a likely target for PSI intervention.

The official reaffirmed North Korea's stance that it would no longer be guided by the terms of the truce to suspend the Korean War in 1953. Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington have never reached a peace agreement to formally end the conflict (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, May 27).

Seoul said today it would "respond sternly" to threatening actions by its neighbor, the Associated Press reported (Hyung-Jim Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 27).

South Korea previously had been only an observer to the program that began in 2003. Its full participation brings the number of PSI states to 95, the White House said.

President Barack Obama "welcomes the Republic of Korea’s decision today to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). By endorsing the PSI Statement of Interdiction Principles, the ROK has joined 94 other countries in a global effort to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems, and related materials to and from states and nonstate actors of proliferation concern," according to a press statement. "We look forward to working with the South Korean government to stop the proliferation of WMD-related materials worldwide and to strengthening the Initiative for the future" (White House release, May 26).