North Korea: Will retaliate if ships are searched

North Korea: Will retaliate if ships are searched    North Korea has threatened to launch a military strike against South Korea if its southern neighbor stops any ships it suspects of carrying weapons of mass destruction, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
   South Korea joined a U.S.-led interdiction program, the Proliferation Security Initiative, to stop or search ships suspected ships after North Korea tested a nuclear device earlier this week.
   “We consider this a declaration of war against us,' an unidentified North Korean military spokesman said Wednesday in a statement carried by the North's official news agency KCNA. 'Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike.'
   According to the newspaper report, North Korean officials considered South Korea's full membership in the Proliferation Security Initiative, started in 2003 by the Bush administration, as a 'declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war.'