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North Korea opposes US talks, vows to step up nuclear drive
Seoul, June 18: North Korea said today it opposed nuclear crisis talks proposed by the United States and vowed to step up a drive to produce nuclear weapons.
Seoul, June 18: North Korea said today it opposed nuclear crisis talks proposed by the United States and vowed to step up a drive to produce nuclear weapons.
Ratcheting up the standoff with the United States, North Korea acknowledged through its official media that it was running a nuclear weapons programme and said it would speed
the process up to counter a US plan to isolate the country.
"We will step up our nuclear deterrent as a self-defense measure to cope with the danger of the US strategy of isolating and stifling the DPRK (North Korea)," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News agency (KCNA). Multilateral talks proposed by the United States were no more than a cloak to hide Washington's plans to strike the Stalinist state, the spokesman said.
"It has become clear that the US insistence on multilateral talks is not to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully," the spokesman said.
Following initial three-way talks in Beijing in April, the United States is insisting on five-party talks to include China, Japan and South Korea as well as North Korea and the United States for the next round. "We can no longer expect anything from multilateral talks that the United States is proposing," the spokesman was quoted as saying in the Korean language KCNA report carried by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The spokesman stopped short of saying the Stalinist regime would boycott five-party talks which were agreed upon by the US, Japan, and South Korea at high-level talks last week to coordinate North Korean policy.
Bureau Report
"We will step up our nuclear deterrent as a self-defense measure to cope with the danger of the US strategy of isolating and stifling the DPRK (North Korea)," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News agency (KCNA). Multilateral talks proposed by the United States were no more than a cloak to hide Washington's plans to strike the Stalinist state, the spokesman said.
"It has become clear that the US insistence on multilateral talks is not to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully," the spokesman said.
Following initial three-way talks in Beijing in April, the United States is insisting on five-party talks to include China, Japan and South Korea as well as North Korea and the United States for the next round. "We can no longer expect anything from multilateral talks that the United States is proposing," the spokesman was quoted as saying in the Korean language KCNA report carried by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The spokesman stopped short of saying the Stalinist regime would boycott five-party talks which were agreed upon by the US, Japan, and South Korea at high-level talks last week to coordinate North Korean policy.
Bureau Report