- SEOUL (IslamOnline.net &
News Agencies) -- North Korea warned Sunday, May 11, that it would take
"an emergency measure" if the United States opted to resolve
the nuclear crisis by force.
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- The warning came from Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling
Workers Party newspaper, as South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun left for
Washington for a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
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- "If the U.S. does not drop its hostile policy toward
the DPRK (North Korea) and finally opts to settle the nuclear issue by
force, the DPRK will be left with no option but to take an emergency measure,"
Rodong said.
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- The newspaper did not elaborate on what the measure may
entail.
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- The daily insisted it was "quite just" for
North Korea to have built up "a deterrent force" in response
to a possible U.S. strike against the Stalinist country.
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- North Korea threatened Monday, May 5, <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-05/05/article04.shtml>to
scuttle all nuclear talks unless the United States responds positively
to Pyongyang's offer to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic
and diplomatic payoffs.
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- A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman blasted Monday
Washington's report last week that kept Pyongyang on a list of "state
supporters of terrorism" along with Iran, Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Syria.
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- "The U.S. smear campaign against the DPRK will only
make the settlement of the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S.
more complicated and aggravate the situation," the spokesman said.
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- Rodong, in a separate commentary, slammed Washington's
dismissal of the proposals.
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- "This is neither a threat nor blackmail but a legitimate
self-defensive measure of the DPRK to cope with the U.S. hostile policy
toward it," it said.
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- Since the crisis erupted in October, the United States
has insisted that North Korea verifiably and irreversibly end both its
nuclear programs based on plutonium and enriched uranium.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-05/11/article05.shtml
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