Pyongyang playing dangerous game of call my bluff
North Korea appears to have backtracked on peacemaking pledges made during the six-nation talks in Beijing, held to avoid the threat of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.
Pyongyang, in a first official comment on the talks, which finished Friday, said little had “reinforced” its confidence that the US would embrace a non-aggressive treaty toward the reclusive communist state.
It accused the US of eyeing up “sinister schemes” to prepare for “regime change” in the region.
North Korea, alongside pre-war Iraq and Iran, sits on US President Bush’s “axis of evil.”
Washington demands of North Korea that it “completely, verifiably and irreversibly” dismantles its nuclear programme.
Kim Jong Il’s foreign ministry said Saturday there was no other option but to increase its nuclear deterrent force.
In October last year, the US announced that North Korea had admitted to a secret nuclear arms programme.
North Korea has since reactivated its Yongbyon nuclear plant, expelled UN’s International Atomic
Energy Agency inspectors and effectively ended its support for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
On Thursday, North Korea reportedly announced plans to officially declare itself a nuclear power and “demonstrate” a first missile test.
Historic three-day talks began on Wednesday with all parties focussed on smoothing out the 10-month stand-off between North Korea and the US over Pyongyang’s increasingly belligerent behaviour.
The meeting brought together North and South Korea, the US, Russia, Japan and China.
It was reported that all of the delegates had agreed to meet again in October for a second round of talks.
Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing were tipped as potential venues.
A spokesman for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea asked rhetorically: “Both sides are leveling guns at each other. How can the DPRK trust the U.S. and drop its gun?
“What we want is for both sides to drop guns at the same time and co-exist peacefully.”
