[Editor’s note: The Egypt-Sudan boundary post reminds me that North Korea says it will no longer respect the legal status of the five islands South Korea administers west of the South’s mainland allocated during the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. So many small details.]
Republished from The Washington Post.
By Blaine Harden. Wednesday, May 27, 2009
TOKYO, May 27 — North Korea announced Wednesday that it is no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, the latest and most profound diplomatic aftershock from the country’s latest nuclear test two days earlier.
North Korea also warned that it would respond “with a powerful military strike” should its ships be stopped by international forces trying to stop the export of missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
The twin declarations, delivered by the country’s state news agency, followed South Korea’s announcement Tuesday that it would join the navies that will stop and inspect suspicious ships at sea. North Korea has repeatedly said that such participation would be a “declaration of war.”
They followed other developments in North Korea that have added to the sense of jangled nerves across northeast Asia since Monday’s underground nuclear test.
