S. Korea on high alert
cnn.com
Thursday, March 20, 2003 Posted: 4:19 AM EST (0919 GMT)
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea has pledged non-military support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq, while placing its armed forces on the highest alert in seven years.
The escalation to a level two warning, from a level three, was taken in response to concerns North Korea could use the distraction of war in Iraq to raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"The alert level was raised from Defcon 3 to Defcon 2," Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted presidential spokeswoman Song Kyoung-hee as saying.
"We expect North Korea to be cautious, but we have strengthened our alert status and our early-warning status in response to possible North Korean attempts to increase tensions," Song said.
The move affects mostly military intelligence and other units assigned to watch the tense border and does not involve any major southern troop movements, The Associated Press reported.
South Korea's newly inaugurated President Roh Moo-hyun Wednesday pledged his country's support for the U.S.-led military strike on Iraq, saying that Seoul was working to head off any adverse effect it might have on relations with North Korea.
In a televised address shortly after the war in Iraq began, Roh said he believed the military action was taken "upon the failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iraqi problem in a peaceful manner."
Roh said Seoul would provide support on a humanitarian, economic, and medical level in post-war Iraq, as well as help strengthen the military.
Terror attacks
The South Korean president spoke after holding a national security meeting with his top advisers.
He said the country was "preparing for the possibility of terror [attacks] within South Korea" and stepping up efforts to prevent the war in Iraq from increasing tensions with North Korea.
"We are focusing our diplomatic efforts on preventing the war from having an adverse effect on the North Korean nuclear issue or inter-Korean relations," Roh said.
The Korea Times reported that Roh had pledged to dispatch up to 750 non-combat troops to Iraq.
The U.S. State Department says South Korea is one of 30 member countries -- including the U.S. -- of what it has called the "Coalition for the Immediate Disarmament of Iraq."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military in South Korea announced plans to implement a new curfew beginning late Thursday, AP reported.
"The new curfew is aimed at protecting U.S. soldiers and civilian employees from anybody that might want to potentially use the world situation to their benefits," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. Eighth Army.
All 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea must be off the streets by 7:30 p.m., several hours earlier than the normal curfew, he said.
CNN Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report. |
