- News>
- World
Defiant North Korea vows to confront Washington
Seoul, Jan 01: Showing no willingness to ease tensions over its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea vowed today to build an army-based `powerful nation` and defy pressure from the United States.
Seoul, Jan 01: Showing no willingness to ease tensions
over its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea vowed today to
build an army-based "powerful nation" and defy pressure from
the United States.
North Korea says it fears a possible US military attack, but US President George W Bush said yesterday that he was confident the North's nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy. "This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Bush said.
North Korea, in its new year message, called on its people to unite under "the banner of the army-based policy" and build a "powerful nation" to counter a possible US invasion. The reality is that North Korea is impoverished and dependent on outside food aid, much of it supplied by the United States via the UN world food programme.
"The United States is now becoming all the more frantic in its moves to stifle (North Korea), openly clamoring about a preemptive nuclear attack on it," said the message, carried on the country's foreign news outlet, Korean central news agency.
The English-language message made no mention of rising international concern over Pyongyang's decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, but stressed the importance of uniting around the country's military.
In an apparent effort to take advantage of an upsurge in anti-US sentiment in South Korea, the message urged "all the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad" to join in confronting the United States.
Bureau Report
North Korea says it fears a possible US military attack, but US President George W Bush said yesterday that he was confident the North's nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy. "This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Bush said.
North Korea, in its new year message, called on its people to unite under "the banner of the army-based policy" and build a "powerful nation" to counter a possible US invasion. The reality is that North Korea is impoverished and dependent on outside food aid, much of it supplied by the United States via the UN world food programme.
"The United States is now becoming all the more frantic in its moves to stifle (North Korea), openly clamoring about a preemptive nuclear attack on it," said the message, carried on the country's foreign news outlet, Korean central news agency.
The English-language message made no mention of rising international concern over Pyongyang's decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, but stressed the importance of uniting around the country's military.
In an apparent effort to take advantage of an upsurge in anti-US sentiment in South Korea, the message urged "all the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad" to join in confronting the United States.
Bureau Report