On North Korea's roads, trucks and cars are draped in camouflage netting. Traffic policewomen have donned green camouflage cloaks. In cities sirens sound and whole populations disappear into bomb shelters, leaving the streets like scenes from the film The Day After. This was how aid workers in the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday described conditions in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as it undergoes a "wartime mobilisation".
Foreign residents in Pyongyang were given a government statement yesterday saying North Korea was being put on wartime mobilisation from midnight on Thursday because it suspected the US and South Korea was secretly planning an attack under cover of talks.
When the news reached Beijing it caused considerable alarm among the diplomatic community. However, aid workers said by telephone that they believed the mobilisation was in connection with annual springtime military exercises, which have been taking place in several parts of the country since last week. This view was echoed by South Korea's defence ministry.
One western resident of Pyongyang said: "It looks dramatic to the foreign community because most were not here a year ago when there were similar manoeuvres." North Korea is currently in the grip of a serious crisis caused by food shortages. Last week, official media warned the country would run out of grain by mid-March, despite cutting daily rations from 300 grams in January to 100 grams in March.
Only North Korean citizens would be allowed into the country and foreign citizens would be restricted to Pyongyang except on official business, the government said. Military commanders would only give permission on a case-by-case basis to foreigners going into the countryside on trips related to the food assistance.
"This means that the wartime system and order apply not only to the regular armed forces, but also to the national economy and overall social life." Today the US, China, North Korea and South Korea will hold preliminary talks in Geneva before resumption of formal peace talks on Monday to end the 195053 Korean War.
The North Korean statement said that the outside world was taking advantage of its harvest calamity to increase its military threat.
Reuters adds: Senior officials from the US and North Korea held talks yesterday in Berlin focusing on bilateral issues, a US State Department official said.
The North Korean delegation was headed by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Kim Gye Gwan, while the US side was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Charles Kartman.
The State Department official said the meeting had begun in the early afternoon at US embassy offices in Berlin and was part of a series of talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
There was also bound to be some overlap with the "four-party talks" beginning in Geneva next week, the official said. Those talks involve North and South Korea and their respective Korean War allies, China and the United States.
Four-way negotiations opened in Geneva in December but the first round failed to produce a breakthrough.