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| Thursday, 1 May 2003 |
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N.Korea talks tough on atomic weapons SEOUL/WASHINGTON, Wednesday (Reuters) North Korea strongly implied in public on Wednesday it had deployed nuclear weapons and accused Washington of using the North's comments on atomic bombs at talks last week as a "mean trick" to hinder progress. The U.S. State Department says North Korea told U.S. negotiators at the talks in Beijing that Pyongyang had nuclear weapons. Washington has described a North Korean disarmament proposal made there as blackmail but promised to study it. Bush administration advisers are divided about how to proceed. The communist North's official KCNA news agency, in a long commentary, said the three-day talks, which also included Chinese representatives, were fruitless but not an utter failure. It said the future was up to Washington, which it accused of having an increasingly hostile policy towards the North. "The reality requires the DPRK to deter the escalating U.S. moves to stifle the DPRK with physical force, compels it to opt for possessing a necessary deterrent force and put it into practice," said a separate North Korean Foreign Ministry statement issued by KCNA. "The U.S. is entirely to blame for this development," it said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The United States has yet to decide whether to seek further talks or United Nations input but has said it remains committed to finding a diplomatic outcome to the crisis. It wants North Korea, which it has branded part of an "axis of evil" along with pre-war Iraq and Iran, to dismantle its nuclear programme verifiably. North Korea showed little sign of lowering the temperature. KCNA was scathing about the Beijing talks, although left a window open for future meetings. "The talks proved fruitless due to the U.S. misbehaviour," said KCNA. "But the DPRK, which wants to peacefully settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, does not think that the talks came to a complete rupture." |
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