- SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea
hardened its stance on Sunday in a nuclear stand-off with the United States,
saying only a "tremendous military deterrent force" could avert
war.
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- As invading U.S. forces tightened their grip on Baghdad,
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the U.S.-led war against Iraq had proved
to Pyongyang that not even a non-aggression pact with Washington could
peacefully resolve the nuclear crisis.
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- Washington, which has bracketed North Korea with Iraq
and Iran in an "axis of evil", suspects Pyongyang is trying to
develop nuclear weapons. The North, which is concerned it could be Washington's
next target, has said it would discuss the matter only with the United
States as part of a non-aggression pact.
-
- But the Foreign Ministry appeared to put in doubt such
a treaty, which the United States does not in any case favour.
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- "The Iraqi war shows that to allow disarming through
inspection does not help avert a war but rather sparks it," the statement,
issued by the official KCNA news agency, said.
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- The statement, which criticised a U.N. decision to discuss
the nuclear crisis on Wednesday after weeks of U.S. lobbying, said neither
public opinion nor the United Nations had been able to stop Washington
going to war with Iraq.
-
- "This suggests that even the signing of a non-aggression
treaty with the U.S. would not help avert a war," it said.
-
- North Korea's actions do not always match its words,
but on the surface the statement marked a clear shift from its earlier
position that a pact was a prerequisite for nuclear talks.
-
- And a foreign ministry statement packs more diplomatic
punch than the day-to-day rhetoric of the state-run media.
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- "Only the physical deterrent force, tremendous military
deterrent force powerful enough to decisively beat back an attack supported
by any ultra-modern weapons, can avert a war and protect the security of
the country and the nation. This is a lesson drawn from the Iraqi war."
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- NUCLEAR COUNTDOWN
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- The foreign ministry did not elaborate, but the United
States and financial markets are apprehensive that North Korea is preparing
to produce material for nuclear weapons.
-
- The United States and North Korea struck a deal in 1994
deal whereby the North would halt its nuclear programme in return for fuel
oil. But Washington said in October the North had admitted to having a
covert nuclear programme. Oil shipments were stopped.
-
- The crisis deepened when Pyongyang expelled U.N. inspectors,
pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and restarted a small
mothballed nuclear reactor. It said this was to produce electricity for
its stricken economy, but Washington says the plant is more likely to be
used to produce weapons material.
-
- North Korea also told a United Nations special envoy
last month it would continue preparing to restart a nuclear reprocessing
plant that U.S. officials say could produce bomb-grade plutonium within
six months of reactivation.
-
- The foreign ministry said Wednesday's U.N. Security Council
talks to discuss the crisis were a "grave provocative act".
-
- "The U.N. Security Council's handling of the nuclear
issue on the peninsula itself is precisely a prelude to war," the
ministry said. "The U.N. Security Council's discussion of the Iraqi
issue was misused by the U.S. as an excuse for war."
-
- The statement reiterated North Korea would not recognise
any U.N. resolution on the issue and said it would boost its defences "by
mobilising all the potentials". It did not elaborate.
-
- Anxious to ease tensions, the government of new South
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said on Sunday the two Koreas and their neighbours
could help defuse the crisis without U.N. involvement.
-
- "South Korea's stance is: if diplomatic efforts
are successful outside the U.N., we can resolve North Korea's nuclear issues
without going through the official channel of the U.N.," Foreign Minister
Yoon Young-kwan told KBS television.
-
- Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Saturday that U.S.
officials, at a meeting with North Korean diplomats in New York last week,
had put forward the idea of six-way talks that would also include South
Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
-
- Kyodo said the working-level talks were the first between
the United States and North Korea since the nuclear crisis broke out.
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