- SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korea
said Friday the standoff over its atomic ambitions was on the brink of
nuclear war as US Vice President Dick Cheney headed to the region for talks
with key Asian allies.
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- The Stalinist state's official news agency accused Washington
of "driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the
brink of a nuclear war" with plans for a pre-emptive strike on North
Korea.
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- Cheney is expected in Tokyo on Saturday on the first
leg of an Asian tour that also takes him to China and South Korea.
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- North Korea described six-party talks held in Beijing
in February as "fruitless," their harshest assessment so far
of the meeting that brought together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia
and the United States.
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- "The US demand that the DPRK (North Korea) scrap
its nuclear programme first is the main obstacle in the way of solving
the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US," the Korean Central
News Agency said in a commentary.
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- "It is a well-known fact that the second round of
the six-way talks held in Beijing last February proved fruitless due to
the US demand that the DPRK dismantle its nuclear program first."
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- Washington is demanding the complete, verifiable, and
irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear prorgammes, both plutonium
and enriched uranium schemes, before it will offer concessions to the impoverished
state.
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- Pyongyang denies having a uranium programme and has said
it will freeze its plutonium weapons programme in return for simultaneous
rewards from Washington.
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- A new round of six-party talks is expected before the
end of June while working parties are supposed to be set up to resolve
address contentious issues.
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- South Korea's foreign ministry said all participating
countries were ready for working level talks apart from North korea, which
has yet to give the go ahead.
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- In the commentary the North Korean news agency said Pyongyang
had no choice but to boost its nuclear weapons drive in the face of US
intransigence and its "moves to put the strategy of pre-emptive nuclear
attack into practice."
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- Cheney's trip to Asia has been overshadowed by the deteriorating
security situation in Iraq where insurgents are threatening to kill three
Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pulls out troops from the war-torn region.
-
- Seven South Koreans were released earlier Friday after
also falling into the hands of insurgents.
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