(Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) vowed on Tuesday to meet any U.S.-led blockade on the communist state with "limitless" retaliation, saying the flames of war would immediately spread to Japan.
Isolated North Korea is facing deepening international ostracism and mounting pressure from the United States and its allies over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The nuclear crisis has also thrown a spotlight on North Korea's trade in arms and illegal drugs, prompting plans by the United States and its allies to curb such traffic.
U.S. and South Korean officials say any policing action would merely enforce existing laws and not represent sanctions or a blockade. A quarantine would not work without the help of China and Russia, which share borders with North Korea, experts say.
But North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily said the moves were part of a premeditated war plan.
"The DPRK will take an immediate physical retaliatory step against the U.S. once it judges that its sovereignty is infringed upon by Washington's blockade operation," said the newspaper in a commentary carried by the North's KCNA news agency.
DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official title.
"Nobody can vouch that this blockade operation will not lead to such a serious development as an all-out war," it said.
JAPAN WARNED
The United States and its allies say Pyongyang is exporting narcotics, counterfeit money and missile technology to help fund its nuclear weapons program and prop up its ailing economy.
In a meeting with South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan in Hawaii at the weekend, the United States won support for efforts to clamp down on North Korean contraband.
Eleven countries including the United States agreed to join forces to find a way to block North Korean ships suspected of carrying drugs, counterfeit money or materials for weapons of mass destruction at a meeting in Madrid last week.
North Korea has rejected the trafficking allegations as groundless and part of U.S. attempts to undermine Pyongyang in its stand-off with Washington over its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The ruling Workers Party organ added an explicit warning to Japan, a main market for smuggled North Korean stimulants. Tokyo has stepped up inspections of visiting North Korean ships on suspicion the vessels carry drugs and intelligence agents.
"In case a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula it will immediately spill over into Japan as the territory of Japan is used as a U.S. base of aggression against the DPRK and Japan is fully involved in the U.S. policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," it said.
Meeting in Cambodia on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed to try to bring Pyongyang and Washington together for a new round of talks after a meeting in Beijing in April at which North Korea said it nuclear weapons.
A South Korean official told reporters Beijing would welcome five-way nuclear talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas and the United States if Washington and Pyongyang accepted that plan
Isolated North Korea is facing deepening international ostracism and mounting pressure from the United States and its allies over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The nuclear crisis has also thrown a spotlight on North Korea's trade in arms and illegal drugs, prompting plans by the United States and its allies to curb such traffic.
U.S. and South Korean officials say any policing action would merely enforce existing laws and not represent sanctions or a blockade. A quarantine would not work without the help of China and Russia, which share borders with North Korea, experts say.
But North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily said the moves were part of a premeditated war plan.
"The DPRK will take an immediate physical retaliatory step against the U.S. once it judges that its sovereignty is infringed upon by Washington's blockade operation," said the newspaper in a commentary carried by the North's KCNA news agency.
DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official title.
"Nobody can vouch that this blockade operation will not lead to such a serious development as an all-out war," it said.
JAPAN WARNED
The United States and its allies say Pyongyang is exporting narcotics, counterfeit money and missile technology to help fund its nuclear weapons program and prop up its ailing economy.
In a meeting with South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan in Hawaii at the weekend, the United States won support for efforts to clamp down on North Korean contraband.
Eleven countries including the United States agreed to join forces to find a way to block North Korean ships suspected of carrying drugs, counterfeit money or materials for weapons of mass destruction at a meeting in Madrid last week.
North Korea has rejected the trafficking allegations as groundless and part of U.S. attempts to undermine Pyongyang in its stand-off with Washington over its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The ruling Workers Party organ added an explicit warning to Japan, a main market for smuggled North Korean stimulants. Tokyo has stepped up inspections of visiting North Korean ships on suspicion the vessels carry drugs and intelligence agents.
"In case a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula it will immediately spill over into Japan as the territory of Japan is used as a U.S. base of aggression against the DPRK and Japan is fully involved in the U.S. policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," it said.
Meeting in Cambodia on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed to try to bring Pyongyang and Washington together for a new round of talks after a meeting in Beijing in April at which North Korea said it nuclear weapons.
A South Korean official told reporters Beijing would welcome five-way nuclear talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas and the United States if Washington and Pyongyang accepted that plan
