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News Analysis

North Korea angling for Obama's attention

AP, Seoul
Sharpening its rhetoric, North Korea is trumpeting its refusal to honour accords designed to keep the peace with South Korea particularly along a disputed maritime border that has long been a flashpoint.
Seoul has scrambled troops to land and sea borders amid signs the communist regime in Pyongyang may be setting the stage for another naval skirmish in the Yellow Sea. But the real focus of North Korea's warning Friday may well be Washington.
The White House says it is still reviewing US policy on North Korea one item on a long list of foreign and domestic issues clamouring for Barack Obama's attention.
An impatient Pyongyang seems to be trying to move itself to the top of Washington's foreign policy agenda by warning that the two Koreas are at the brink of war because of the hard-line stance of South Korea's proUSpresident.
The two Koreas technically remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty. In 1991, however, the two signed a pledge to boost reconciliation efforts and refrain from invasion particularly along their disputed
western sea border.
But North Korea's Kim Jong II, a leader with a flair for drama, knows the value of a naval skirmish or a well-timed missile test to remind the world that his country may be poor but still has the power to cause trouble if it doesn't get its way.
Fifty years ago, North Korea was considered the richer, more advanced of the two Koreas. Today, South Korea's economy ranks 13th in the world while the Stalinist North is one of the poorest nations.
The North's relations with its main ally, China, have cooled somewhat in recent years, and help from Russia has slowed since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Flooding and mismanagement in the mid-1990s destroyed North Korea's farms and economy, forcing the proud nation to rely on handouts to feed itspcople.
When then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung ushered in a "sunshine" era of reconciliation a decade ago, Kim Jong II shook his hand heartily in 2000 and accepted the generous aid that came withit.
But the warming in relations didn't stop the North from building up its military or its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea, population 23 million, may be impoverished, but it has the world's fourth-largest military and an arsenal of long-range missiles, including one believed capable of reaching the United States.
Despite years of international attempts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, it is believed to have built a handful of atomic weapons. In 2006, it carried out an underground test explosion despite agreeing to abandon its nuclear programme.
Taking a new tack, conservative Lee Myung-bak took office as South Korea's president last February with a harder-line policy: No more unconditional aid until the North abides by its commitment to dismantle the nuclear weapons programme.
That stance enraged Pyongyang, which cut off reconciliation talks and branded Lee "human scum" and a traitor to Korean reunification.
While Pyongyang fumes, Lee has remained calm and intractable, resulting in a fast deterioration of ties. He said Friday he was hopeful ties would be restored soon, but his recent decision to put the architect of his North Korea policy in charge of the ministry dealing with Pyongyang further angered the North.