Niet enkel de Europese schuldproblemen baren beleggers zorgen, ook het conflict tussen Noord- en Zuid-Korea dreigt te escaleren. Dit veroorzaakt mede de stevige dalingen op de Europese beurzen vanochtend. De Noord-Koreaanse leider Kim Jong Il gaf zijn troepen de opdracht om zich voor te bereiden op een militair offensief. Via Bloomberg: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told the country’s military to be combat-ready in a message broadcast last week that coincided with South Korea’s announcement that it blamed his regime for the sinking of a warship, a dissident group said. The order was broadcast on May 20 by O Kuk Ryol, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, according to the website of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a Seoul-based group run by defectors from the communist country. Yonhap News agency reported on the posting earlier today, sending the won lower by the most in more than a year and causing stocks to drop. The report added to perceptions of increased tension in the Korean peninsula following the March 26 sinking of the 1,200 ton Cheonan. South Korea yesterday announced plans for joint military exercises with the U.S. off the west coast where the ship sank, while North Korea today warned of military action in the area after accusing the South of violating its territory in the disputed zone. “For Kim Jong Il to be giving such an order is pretty serious,” said Kim Yong Hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Seoul-based Dongguk University, adding that he doubted that such a direct order was given. While Kim doesn’t want war, North Korea is ready to counter any attacks, O said in the message, according to the group, which cited an unidentified person in the country. The organization was among the first in South Korea to report on North Korea’s botched currency revaluation late last year. Not Monitored Lee Jong Joo, a spokeswoman at the Unification Ministry in Seoul, said she couldn’t confirm the report as the closed- circuit radio, on which the message was said to be delivered, cannot be monitored by South Korea’s government. A spokesman at the South Korean Defense Ministry, who declined to be identified, said the government can’t comment on North Korea’s military status. The won fell 3 percent to 1,251.1 per dollar as of the 3 p.m. close in Seoul, the biggest drop since March 30, 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It touched 1,277.85, the weakest level since July 16. The Kospi index sank 2.8 percent to 1,560.83. South Korean defense-related stocks rallied. Speco Co., a construction company that supplies the military, rose 14.9 percent to 5,520 won. Victek Co., which makes electronic warfare equipment, gained 4.9 percent to 4,300 won. Tensions are rising in the Korean peninsula following last week’s report by a South Korean-led multinational panel that North Korea was the “only plausible” perpetrator of attack, in which 46 sailors died. Propaganda War “If South Korea continues to trespass our waters we will carry out real military action to protect our territory,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported today. North Korea’s military sent the warning in a message to South Korea today, the agency said. Dozens of South Korean navy ships violated the maritime border between May 14 and 24, “driving the situation there to the brink of explosion,” KCNA said. North Korea said it would shell South Korean positions that tried to blare propaganda over the demilitarized zone that marks the border between the two countries, which are still formally at war following their 1950-1953 conflict. The border is one of the most heavily armed in the world, with U.S. and South Korean troops facing off against North Korea’s million-strong army. South Korea plans to define North Korea as its “main enemy” when it maps out military strategy, Yonhap reported today, citing a government official it didn’t identify. South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak said yesterday the country will push for United Nations censure against North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan. To contact the reporter on this story: Bomi Lim in Seoul at blim30@bloomberg.net