- North Korea slammed US Vice President Dick Cheney as
"mentally deranged" and accused him of using his recent Asian
tour to incite bitterness toward the communist country.
-
- "It considered Cheney as a mentally deranged person
steeped in the inveterate enmity towards the system in the DPRK (North
Korea) long ago as he is the boss of the neo-conservative forces in the
US," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said late today.
-
- Cheney visited Japan and South Korea last week to step
up support for US forces in Iraq and reaffirmed the US demand for complete
scrapping of North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.
-
- Cheney also said after talks with Chinese leaders that
North Korea could provide nuclear technology to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda,
and warned of a nuclear arms race in Asia if Pyongyang was not stopped.
-
- Pyongyang insists it will freeze its nuclear weapons
drive only in return for rewards from the United States.
-
- But Washington demands the complete, verifiable, and
irreversible dismantling of North Korean nuclear programs, both plutonium
and enriched uranium schemes, before it will offer concessions to the impoverished
state.
- The North's spokesman insisted linking North Korea
to al-Qaeda was "an expression of total ignorance and nothing but
a far-fetched attempt to justify" Washington's hostile policy towards
Pyongyang.
-
- "Action is inevitably followed by reaction. The
DPRK is seriously contemplating a measure to counter the US oft-repeated
demand that it scrap its nuclear program first," he said.
-
- The spokesman said that if Cheney officially made such
"reckless" remarks representing the stand of the US administration,
this would not be a simple matter.
-
- North Korea "has no idea of dealing with the US
any longer if the latter insists on the disgusting CVID (complete, verifiable,
and irreversible dismantling)," he said.
-
- Two rounds of six-party talks hosted by China to defuse
the crisis have so far failed to narrow differences over the US demand
and Pyongyang's denial that it is running an enriched-uranium program.
-
- A new round of talks is expected before the end of June
while working parties are supposed to be set up to address contentious
issues.
|