North Korea warns US pressure could aggravate nuclear standoff

SOUTH KOREA: North Korea warned the United States on Friday that pressuring the communist nation over its nuclear weapons programs will only aggravate the standoff and could lead to an “explosive crisis.”

The North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper issued the warning, accusing what it called “hard-line conservative forces in the U.S.” of seeking to increase pressure on Pyongyang in an attempt to disrupt efforts to end the nuclear dispute through dialogue.

“As shown in the previous nuclear crisises on the Korean peninsula, pursuing a policy of force would only bring about an explosive crisis, not a resolution of the problem,” the paper said in a commentary, carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“Everything achieved through dialogue so far would evaporate into the air,” it said, warning of an unspecified “corresponding response if bellicose U.S. forces” continue to pressure the regime.

The paper accused hard-line U.S. officials of calling for an end to negotiations with North Korea over the nuclear dispute, raising the North’s human rights record, and seeking to build a missile defense system in the region.

The warning came as six-nation talks on the nuclear dispute, which made progress in shutting down and disabling the North’s nuclear reactor, are now at a deadlock over Pyongyang’s refusal to provide a complete list of its nuclear programs.

Seoul, Friday, AP