North Korea Threatens Strikes Against South

North Korea has a long history of bluffing and brinkmanship. Is this latest announcement another example?

On Wednesday, North Korea threatened strikes against South Korea, according to the New York Times. North Korea declared that it will interpret it as a declaration of war if any of its ships are stopped or searched for weapons of mass destruction.

The possibility of the search comes as South Korea joined the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, a program to curb the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. North Korea had warned the South not to join, according to the Times.

Here's what a North Korean military spokesman had to say about it, as published in the Times.

"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."

Whether this is just hard-line rhetoric or actual policy stance remains to be seen.

Analysts consulted by the Times said that a "naval skirmish" was possible if relations between North and South Korea continue to deteriorate. However, they predicted any conflict would be "limited in scale."

This is hopeful news, given the North's recent nuclear tests. (Of course, these nuclear tests seem more a symbolic gesture of power than an actual feasible weapon.)

In the world of military-backed diplomacy, South Korea's decision to join the anti-proliferation initiative also seems to be largely a symbolic gesture. South Korea is saying it will only stop ships in its own territorial waters, a right it already has, according to the Times. There's also a small chance that North Korea would send such loaded ships into South Korean waters.

So perhaps it is more political maneuvering than a threat of imminent war.

Yet ever since North Korea has restarted its nuclear program, the eyes of the world have been trained on the country's moves.

In the latest development, a South Korean newspaper reported early Wednesday that plumes of steam have been seen coming from a North Korean plutonium plant, according to the Times article. The report, originally from the Chosun Ilbo newspaper in South Korea, said that signs of activity at the plant were detected by American spy satellites.

This apparently confirms North Korea's claims that it has restarted its reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, a city 60 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang. North Korea had shut the plant down as part of an international deal, but with its relations with the United States deteriorating, it had announced in late April it would restart the plant, according to the Times.

As far as the nuclear tests go, the Pentagon is watching closely.

Pentagon officials said the U.S. military sent a plane into the international airspace near North Korea on Tuesday to collect any radioactive materials that might have seeped out from the underground test, according to the Times. A second flight is planned to take place within a day or two. The collected particles will be sent to laboratories in the United States to be analyzed.

Reference: North Korea Threatens Military Strikes on South, Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times