- (AFP) -- North Korea rejected an ongoing wave of international
diplomatic efforts aimed at harnessing its nuclear program, saying it would
negotiate only with the United States.
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- The Stalinist state said it would not allow the United
States to "internationalise" the dispute, and specifically said
the United Nations should not be involved in trying to resolve the crisis.
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- The comments came just one day before the UN Security
Council was due to discuss the issue in New York and a day after UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan's special envoy, Maurice Strong, ended a four-day visit
to Pyongyang.
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- "The DPRK (North Korea) and the US should sit face-to-face
to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," the state-run
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted first vice foreign minister Kang
Sok-Ju as saying in Pyongyang.
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- "The internationalisation of this issue would make
the prospect of its settlement more complicated and gloomy."
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- The comments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin's
envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukova, was in Pyongyang and
the most senior US diplomat for Asia, James Kelly, sought help from Japan
in pressuring the North.
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- And in a rare public comment carried by KCNA on Sunday,
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il warned international pressure would not
break his resolve.
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- "The further the imperialists intensify their moves
to isolate and stifle the DPRK, the more dynamically its army and people
turn out to successfully build a powerful nation," Kim said, according
to KCNA.
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- "No force on earth can break the inexhaustible strength
and indomitable will of this great army and people who have brought about
only victories pulling through all difficulties and ordeals."
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- As Pyongyang's verbal barrages continued, the US ambassador
to South Korea, Thomas Hubbard, said the United States would offer North
Korea economic co-operation if it abandonded its nuclear ambitions.
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- Hubbard told a KBS television talk show here that the
United States would consider "a broad approach" to North Korea
that would entail economic cooperation beyond food aid if it first abandonded
its nuclear program.
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- He also reiterated that the United States was not considering
economic sanctions against the North at present, but the North must understand
its continued defiance of international demands would entail consequences.
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- In Pyongyang, Losyukova met with two of North Korea's
political heavyweights, Workers' Party central committee secretary Choe
Thae-Bok and cabinet vice premier Jo Chang-Dok.
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- Although no details were released by KCNA, Russia has
made public its desire for a deal that would see North Korea receive security
guarantees and economic aid in return for a commitment to freeze its nuclear
program.
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- In Japan, Kelly, the US assistant secretary of state
for East Asian and Pacific affairs, met with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi
to forge a united stance in dealing with North Korea.
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- Kawaguchi and Kelly said Japan, the United States, China,
South Korea and Russia would continue working together in a bid to resolve
the North Korean nuclear crisis, a foreign ministry official said.
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- Kelly told Kawaguchi the alliance of the United States,
South Korea and Japan was at the core of actions to deal with North Korea,
another Japanese diplomat said.
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- Kelly arrived in Japan Sunday after visiting South Korea,
China, Singapore and Indonesia in a tour to discuss how to defuse the Korean
nuclear crisis.
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- Also on Sunday, the top US official on disarmament issues,
John Bolton, arrived in China's capital, Beijing, ahead of talks with senior
officials on Monday.
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- The international alert over North Korea's nuclear ambitions
was raised by Kelly after he visited Pyongyang in October last year and
said the hermit state's rulers had admitted to secretly restarting its
atomic program.
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- Although North Korea initally denied this, the revelation
kickstarted a chain of events that led to Pyongyang kicking out UN weapons
inspectors and threatening to reactivate nuclear facilities, supposedly
for energy production.
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- The North's actions were in breach of a 1994 agreemeent
between Pyongyang and Washington that froze its nuclear program in return
for fuel aid and help in building a nuclear reactor to produce energy.
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