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"We strongly appeal (for) relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint, act in a responsible manner and avoid increas(ing) tensions....Calm rather than tension, dialogue rather than confrontation, peace rather than warfare, this is the strong aspiration and voice of the peoples from both sides of the Peninsula and the international community."
He also called the situation "perilous." Washington and Seoul were unmoved, blaming Pyongyang unfairly. They also participated jointly in South Korea's provocative December 20 military exercises.
Held on Yeonpyeong Island, they included 90 minutes of live artillery fire with US trainers and observers present. Local residents stayed in bunkers in case Pyongyang retaliated. South Korean officials went on emergency standby. Washington and Seoul's military were on high alert. Provocative overhead flights threated attack. Warships patrolled the Yellow Sea near the disputed Northern Limited Line, unilaterally imposed by Washington in 1953, one of many thorns affecting relations.
Earlier, South Korea's Defense Minister, Kim Kwan-jin, said Pyongyang's artillery batteries would be bombed if its territory again was shelled. Instead of cooling tensions, Seoul and Washington exploit them to the fullest, including inflammatory media reports condemning the North as aggressor, the South a victim, and America as neutral arbiter.
Nonetheless, Pyongyang showed restraint, cooling tensions that heightened fears along one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers. Its official KCNA news agency said:
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation," calling the drills "childish play with fire."
In a show of good faith, Pyongyang also agreed to let UN inspectors return to its Yongbyon nuclear complex, offered to sell its 12,000 fuel rods to another country, and proposed creating a joint military commission and hotline with Seoul and Washington to avoid future conflict. Hardly proposals from a belligerent, yet they were quickly dismissed, US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley saying:
"We've seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years. We'll be guided by what North Korea does, not (what) it might do under certain circumstances."
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