Pyongyang backs away from further talks

Wednesday, 1 October 2003 6:00 AM

Reclusive communist state North Korea has turned down the opportunity to discuss the nuclear weapons standoff.

Instead, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, known as the DPRK, said it would seek to supplement its nuclear deterrent force to safeguard itself from a possible attack by the US.

Representatives from the increasingly isolated state made the comments after informal talks broke down between diplomats from the US, Japan and South Korea in Tokyo.

North Korea demands that the Bush administration undertakes "simultaneous action" to meet its demands. Kim Jong Il's regime insists it makes little sense to "put down the guns first."

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told the North Korean news agency KCNA: "Simultaneous action is a realistic way of denuclearising the Korean peninsula, and any opposition to it is tantamount to the refusal of the denuclearisation.

"Under the present circumstance in which the DPRK and the United States are levelling guns at each other, asking the other party to put down the guns first does not make any sense.

"This can be construed only as an ulterior intention to disarm and kill the DPRK."

Separately, Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reiterated his call yesterday for North Korea to return to the negotiating table.

North Korean news agency KCNA that the country was taking "practical measures" to boost its nuclear capabilities.

In October last year, the US announced that North Korea had admitted to a secret nuclear arms programme.

Since that time, the North has reportedly reactivated its Yongbyon nuclear plant, expelled UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and effectively ended its support for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran, North Korea and the pre-war Iraq, sit on US President Bush's "axis of evil."

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