North Korea snarls as South's sunshine policy fades

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has sent jet fighters to test the South's air defenses and threatened to reduce its wealthy neighbor to ashes as it tries to push the new government in Seoul to back off from its hard line with Pyongyang.

On Monday, South Korea's biggest daily newspaper said the communist state's jets had flown sorties close to South Korea's airspace at least 10 times since Lee Myung-bak became president on February 25. At the weekend the North said it was ready to attack.

"These should be understood as the first actions signaling a freeze in North and South Korean relations," said Yang Moo-jin, a specialist on North Korea at the South's Kyungnam University.

Lee's government has warned Pyongyang that if it wants to keep receiving aid it should improve human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more than 1,000 Southerners kidnapped or held since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Lee's stand has infuriated the touchy North, used to taking in billions of dollars over the past 10 years from Lee's left-of-centre predecessors who asked for little in return under their so-called "sunshine policy" of engagement, analysts said.

But analysts added that China, one of North Korea's biggest benefactors and the closest the destitute state can claim to a major ally, would lean on the hermit state to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula spinning out of control.

Beijing, already facing criticism for its handling of the crises in Tibet and Sudan, does not want North Korea to be another headache and spoil its hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics, they said.

"China doesn't want any turmoil," said Kim Sung-han, a Korea University professor and expert in international relations.