A rare statement by North Korea's top decision-making body may herald a deep freeze in inter-Korean ties and a further delay in resuming nuclear disarmament talks, analysts said Saturday.

The North threatened Friday to break off all dialogue with South Korea unless Seoul apologises for allegedly drawing up a contingency plan to handle regime collapse in the communist state.

The powerful National Defence Commission (NDC), which is headed by leader Kim Jong-Il, denounced the alleged plan as a "crime," vowing to stage a "holy war" against those responsible for it, blaming Seoul's presidential Blue House.

Unconfirmed South Korean news reports say officials have a blueprint to administer the North in the event of regime collapse, a coup or a popular uprising there.

The NDC said the "Emergency Ruling Plan" is aimed at bringing down the North's socialist regime and was worked out by South Korean authorities to complement a joint US-South Korea military operation to overthrow the regime.

Unless Seoul apologises, it will be "thoroughly excluded from any dialogue and negotiations aimed at improving inter-Korean ties and securing peace and stability," it said.

The NDC statement perplexed South Korean authorities, coming only hours after Pyongyang's Red Cross authorities said they would accept food aid, which the North had shunned for two years as political tensions with the South rose.

"We find it deeply regretful that North Korea took a threatening stance toward us, based on some unconfirmed media reports," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-Sung said.

The ministry's deputy spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo downplayed the NDC statement, saying North Korea has "routinely protested" against contingency plans.

It was unclear from the NDC statement whether the North would participate in planned talks on Tuesday on revitalising a joint industrial estate, which would be a first inter-Korean contact this year.

The talks would serve as the first test to see "whether the latest warning would accompany real action," according to Lee.

But analysts said the statement by the North's most powerful body in effect reversed earlier peace offers made since last August when Pyongyang sent an envoy to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung.

"The North believes the plan puts into a concrete form the scenario for reunification through absorption by the South," Kim Yeon-Chul of the private Hankyoreh Peace Institute told AFP on Saturday.

"This statement marks an end" to North Korea's peace initiatives taken following its second nuclear test in May last year, he said.

"The North will probably boycott all inter-Korean talks and relations will become worse. This will also have a negative impact on the six-party talks" on disarming North Korea, he added.

The North abandoned the six-party nuclear disarmament talks last April.

Pyongyang wants talks on a peace treaty with the United States and demands that sanctions be lifted before it returns to the six-party forum, grouping the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

The US State Department has rejected an end to sanctions at this stage.

Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the rare NDC statement should be taken seriously as it carries "the very intent of Kim Jong-Il and it stands above all others."

"Non-governmental contact between the two Koreas and international efforts led by China and the United States are required to calm the situation," Yang said.

earlier related report

Japan, S. Korea rebuff N. Korea proposal for peace treaty
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 16, 2010 –

Japan and South Korea on Saturday brushed aside North Korea's call for early talks on a peace treaty, saying they have no plans to lift sanctions unless it first makes progress in scrapping nuclear weapons.

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan ahead of a two-day meeting of top diplomats from East Asian and Latin American countries, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

The two foreign ministers held their first meeting since North Korea on Monday called for talks on a treaty to formally end the 1950-53 war before it puts the issue of dismantling its nuclear programme on the table.

During the talks, Okada and Yu said their countries will "never allow" Pyongyang to go ahead with nuclear and missile development, and agreed not to accept any plan to lift sanctions immediately, the official said.

They agreed that stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks must resume first, and "confirmed the importance of urging (North Korea) to take concrete and forward-looking action," the official said.

"Minister Yu said it's important to maintain a two-track approach — opening the window of dialogue and carrying out sanctions firmly — and Minister Okada replied that he agreed on it," the official added.

The North has long called for a treaty to officially end the conflict, which ended only with an armistice, leaving the parties technically at war. A US-led United Nations force fought for the South, China backed the North.

Six-party agreements in 2005 and 2007 envisage talks on a peace treaty but only in return for full denuclearisation. The North said the peace pact should come first.

Pyongyang has also offered to resume negotiations if the sanctions against it are lifted.

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