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North Korea Suspends Talks, Says It Will Build More Nuclear Bombsa

every nutter wants the bomb
Seoul (AFP) Feb 10, 2005
North Korea said Thursday it had developed nuclear weapons to protect itself against a US attack and would indefinitely boycott multilateral talks aimed at dismantling its atomic programs.

In a dramatic rejection of the second administration of US President George W. Bush, the Stalinist state said it would no longer engage in the six-party dialogue over its nuclear weapons drive.

The foreign ministry statement carried by the official KCNA news agency also said the country would seek to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and accused the United States of plotting to overthrow its government.

It was North Korea's first official response to what was widely seen as a conciliatory gesture to Pyongyang from President Bush in his State of the Union address last week.

Three years ago Bush denounced North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq. This time he avoided inflammatory language and said Washington was working closely with its allies to resolve the nuclear standoff.

North Korea said late last year it would not consider returning to dialogue until Bush had mapped out his second administration's policy towards it.

The latest statement rebuffed Bush and his team, taking special aim at US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who branded North Korea an "outpost of tyranny" during her confirmation hearing last month.

"The Bush administration termed the DPRK (North Korea), its dialogue partner, an 'outpost of tyranny,' putting into the shade its hostile policy, and totally rejected it. This deprived the DPRK of any justification to participate in the six-party talks."

Pyongyang has boasted publicly in the past of possessing a nuclear deterrent and has vowed never to dismantle its atomic arsenal unless the United States drops its "hostile" policy.

"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," Thursday's statement said.

Washington believes North Korea possesses one or two crude bombs and may have reprocessed enough plutonium for half-a-dozen more, from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

"(North Korea's) nuclear weapons will remain nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances," the statement said.

"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period ... "

It accused Washington of seeking to topple North Korea's political system at any cost and threatening it with nuclear attack.

"This compels us to take a measure to bolster (North Korea's) nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by the people in the DPRK."

But Rice warned North Korea it only faced deeper isolation if it continued on its present path, and that Washington could handle any threat it poses.

"We are trying to give the North Koreans a different path," she told a news conference after meeting officials from the European Union's Luxembourg presidency.

"We are confident... that of course the United States and its allies can deal with any potential threat from North Korea. And North Korea I think understands that," the chief US diplomat said.

"But the fact of the matter is that the world has given them a way out and they should take that way out.

"We would hope that there will be six-party talks again, and six-party talks soon, so that we can resolve the issue."

The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms control agreement. Pyongyang denied that charge but restarted a plutonium program.

North Korea attended three rounds of the six-nation talks, which also group China, South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia. But it shunned a fourth round set for last September, complaining of hostile US policies.

The other parties to the nuclear talks with Pyongyang all expressed their dismay at Thursday's announcement, urging the country to reconsider.

"It is regrettable... We want North Korea's unconditional participation in six-party talks," South Korea's government said in a statement following a National Security Council meeting.

"Our stance is that North Korean nuclear weapons must not be tolerated under any circumstances."

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tokyo would also keep trying to get the negotiations to resume, while Russia urged North Korea not start a new nuclear arms race.

"We cannot but be disappointed with North Korea's decision," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

China's foreign ministry simply said it hoped that talks with North Korea would continue, in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

North Korea's incendiary announcement also drew an immediate response from the United Nations, as well as from the European Union and major European nations.

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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US Concerned NKorea May Export Nuclear Materials
Washington DC (VOA) Feb 03, 2005
The State Department expressed concern Wednesday that North Korea "may be tempted" to export nuclear materials, as it has done in the past with missiles and missile-related technology.



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