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To: Abner Hosmer who wrote (8269)	3/13/1998 2:24:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116815

Nice post Tom............... North Korea announces military mobilization, reports, aid official say Associated Press, 03/13/98 01:13 BEIJING (AP) - North Korea said Friday that it was entering a state of ''wartime mobilization'' for nationwide military exercises, according to foreign aid officials and reporters based in the capital, Pyongyang. The exercises were being held out of concern over growing foreign military threats, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, quoted north Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Li In Gyu as saying Friday in Pyongyang. In comments to foreign diplomats, Li accused the United States, Japan and South Korea of exploiting the economic crisis in North Korea to plot against it, said the report, which did not provide further details. A foreign aid official who asked not to be identified called the mobilization, which was imposed late Thursday, ''martial law.'' The coordinator of U.N. relief efforts in North Korea, Douglas Coutts, who attended Li's briefing, said there was no indication as to how long the war games would last. ''We were told that it was open-ended,'' Coutts said. ''It would appear that these activities are not the normal military activities.'' As part of the exercises, Coutts said North Korea announced strict limits on the entry of foreigners into North Korea and on travel outside Pyongyang by foreigners based in the North Korean capital. Another international aid worker based in Pyongyang said the maneuvers were not unusual, and that North Korea had been staging military exercises for almost two weeks. ''There's nothing particular, I would say. Last year when I was here there was a similar exercise,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said there was no obvious increase in the military presence in Pyongyang and that no curfew had been announced. North Korea's economy has been in a free fall and the country has had to turn to the international community for help in battling famine because of waning harvests worsened by floods and drought. The reports of mobilization followed unconfirmed rumors of troop movements and possible armed clashes in Pyongyang, but they did not cause immediate alarm in rival South Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry on Friday denied that North Korea had launched a wartime alert, saying the North's activities appeared to be a standard military exercise. The reported mobilization follows an incident early Thursday when South Korean soldiers fired warning shots toward North Korean soldiers, who apparently crossed the heavily-guarded demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two countries, according to the Defense Ministry. The two countries are still technically at war, having never signed a peace treaty ending the 1950-53 Korean War.