"The 'issue of missile launch' is a matter wholly pertaining to our sovereignty and (North Korea) will launch a missile and a satellite any time it feels necessary," the North's official media said.

The warning came five days after Pyongyang officially declared a moratorium on further missile tests in return for Washington lifting economic sanctions against the North under a landmark accord in Berlin.

Pyongyang made no further comments on whether it had reversed its earlier promise.

But the North's threat was seen widely here as expressing the communist regime's discontent over the way South Korea has dealt with the North's earlier pledge on missile tests.

In its warning, Pyongyang's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun blasted South Korean Foreign Minister Hong Soon-Young for "utterances inciting confrontation" with the Stalinist North.

"Hong, when interviewed by a radio of South Korea, talked nonsense that the North opted to 'accommodate' South Korea's 'engagement policy towards the North' and the credit for its moves related to the 'issue of missile' went to South Korea," it said.

"The desperate efforts of the South Korean authorities to stifle the North and realize their ambition to 'unify the country' by invading the North through their anti-DPRK (North Korea) joint action with their aggressive US and Japanese masters will bring nothing to them."

Since President Kim Dae-Jung took office in February 1998, South Korea has pursued its "sunshine" policy of reconcilation with North Korea in a bid to open up the reclusive regime.

But the North appears to be wary of any such openness, which some analysts here say could lead to the tightly-controlled country becoming swiftly bankrupt.

In a separate dispatch, Rodong denounced the United States for insisting that South Korea should be involved in concluding a peace accord on the Korean peninsula.

It said the peace accord should be signed only between Pyongyang and Washington to replace an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

"Whatever the reason, the South Korean authorities can never be a party concerned for the conclusion of peace accord," the daily said.

"There is no need nor legal and theoretical ground to invite a third party to meddle in this matter. Meanwhile, any of the DPRK and US sides is not obliged to shift its legal obligation and qualification as a party concerned onto other party," it added.

The United States, China and the two Koreas have held peace talks since 1997, but little progress has been made as North Korea refused to recognize South Korea as a dialogue partner.

Pyongyang has repeatedly insisted that Seoul should not be included in the process of replacing the armistice accord with a new peace treaty, a key goal of the four-party peace talks.

Strained relations between the two Koreas, still technically at war, recently began to ease as Seoul moved to expand exchanges with Pyongyang in non-political fields such as sports and business.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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