The risk of a flashpoint is running high on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang announced itwould rebuild and restart its nuclear facilities, ysts said.
"What we must be cautious of is accidental events that might be misread, resulting in a firefightor even larger disasters," said Huang Youfu, a professor of Korean studies at Minzu Universityof China. But he said the chances are slim that Pyongyang will launch a planned attack againstthe US.
China called for calm and restraint on Tuesday.
"We have noticed the remarks of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and express ourregret," Foreign Ministry spokean Hong Lei said at a regular news conference.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is complicated and sensitive," Hong said, calling forparties to resume dialogue and find a proper way to resolve the issue.
"China's persistent position is to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and protectpeace and stability of the peninsula and northeast Asia," he said.
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DPRK will rebuild and restart its nuclear facilities, including a mothballed uraniumenrichment facility and a 5-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon, a spokean at its atomic energyagency told the official KCNA news service on Tuesday.
The nuclear plant's output will be used for military purposes and to solve what KCNA termed an"acute shortage of electricity".
Huang, from Minzu University of China, said the DPRK's threats, which were intended aargaining chips with the US, have had little effect.
"The DPRK has to realize that what it has done cannot be the solution," Huang said.
On Monday, the US said a destroyer had been deployed off the southwest coast of the ROK inwhat a US defense official described as "a prudent move" given the current tensions.
The Republic of Korea's Foreign Ministry said the latest statement from the DPRK was "veryregrettable".
ngbyon reactor in July 2007 under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament accord and destroyed itscooling tower a year later. But the DPRK revealed it was enriching uranium at Yongbyon in2010 when it allowed foreign experts to visit the centrifuge facility there.
The announcement was Pyongyang's latest move in a series of threats that included vows of anuclear strike on the US, missile strikes on its Pacific bases and war with the ROK followingsanctions and the joint US and ROK military drills.
It followed a meeting of the DPRK's ruling party on Sunday, which adopted a declaration callingnuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, whileemphasizing economic development as the other priority.
Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, after tests in 2006 and 2009.
In Washington, the White House has said the US takes the DPRK's war threats seriously.
But White House spokean Jay Carney said on Monday: "I would note that despite the harshrhetoric we are hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Koreanmilitary posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces."
Pyongyang "is keeping tension and crisis alive to raise the stakes ahead of possible futuretalks with the United States", Hwang Ji-hwan, a DPRK expert at the University of Seoul, told TheAssociated Press.
Mutual distrust is the fundamental reason for the deteriorating situation on the KoreanPeninsula, Zhang Xudong, an expert on DPRK studies at Tsinghua University, said recently.
Zhang noted every time the US and the ROK adjust policies toward the DPRK, it results innuclear threats from the country.
"Neither military confrontation nor saber-rattling will lead to breakthroughs in resolving thenuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. All parties should stick to diplomacy and dialogue," hesaid.
