North Korea warns U.S. of 'options'
By Joseph Coleman
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — China offered yesterday to host talks between the United States and North Korea in a bid to end their standoff, and the North warned it was running out of patience with Washington, threatening to exercise undefined "options."
Associated Press
A vaguely worded statement from Pyongyang did not specify what options it was considering, but suggested the isolationist communist nation was prepared to escalate the crisis over its drive to develop nuclear weapons.
Demonstrators at a rally in Pyongyang support North Korea's withdrawal from the global nuclear treaty. The banner exhorts opposition toward the United States.
Today, North and South Korea agreed to hold Cabinet-level talks in Seoul next week, said Kim Jung-ro, a spokesman at the South's Unification Ministry. South Korean officials have said they want to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The White House welcomed diplomatic efforts but did not comment specifically on the China offer.
President Bush said yesterday that nations in the region should "bind together" and tell the North Koreans "we expect them to disarm ... we expect them not to develop nuclear weapons." If the North does so, then Washington would consider new talks about food and energy aid to the impoverished nation.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who arrived in China from Seoul last night for meetings on North Korea and its nuclear-weapons program, said this morning he was "very reassured" at how his talks with Asian nations about the issue are unfolding.
Today, the U.S. military said North Korean soldiers have stepped up patrols in one area of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.
"Over the past week, we have some increased activity," said Lt. Col. Matthew Margotta, who commands a combined battalion of U.S. and South Korean soldiers stationed near the border village of Panmunjom. He described the activity as "not alarming, just unusual."
In Seoul, Kelly reassured South Korean officials that Washington would stick to diplomacy to seek a peaceful settlement to the crisis. He also held out the prospect of energy assistance to the North if it verifiably gives up its nuclear ambitions. North Korea suffers an acute energy shortage.
"I had excellent meetings in (South) Korea," Kelly said, leaving his hotel for the Chinese Foreign Ministry this morning. "I'm very reassured. We have to keep talking with each other to make sure that things are done in the best possible way."
In a statement yesterday, however, North Korea accused Washington of being insincere about prospects for dialogue. It insisted it was not moving to reactivate its nuclear facilities to wrest concessions out of the West.
The North defended its decision last week to withdraw from a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty and said in a second statement yesterday that there was a limit to its "self control" in the face of what it calls U.S. aggression.
If the United States responds to the withdrawal from the treaty "with new sanctions, blockade and pressure offensives, (North Korea) will exercise the second and third corresponding options," a commentary in Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's most prominent state newspaper, said.
Possible further next steps for the North would include suspending its moratorium on missile tests — as it has threatened — or go ahead with a test. A more extreme option would be to begin developing weapons-grade plutonium at a reprocessing plant that they say is ready for operation.
The commentary, carried by the North's news agency, said the withdrawal from the non-proliferation treaty had been a "legitimate option" and was "guaranteed by its powerful military capacity."
Today, North Korea continued its diatribe, saying Washington, not Pyongyang, was to blame for nuclear proliferation around the world.
"Proliferation of nuclear weapons on our planet was started by the United States," said the North, referring to the bombing of two Japanese cities in the closing days of World War II.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer denied a report by Japan's Kyodo News agency that the United States has proposed providing North Korea with a written security guarantee signed by Bush.
In a push for diplomacy, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would be willing to negotiate talks in Beijing between the United States and China's communist ally.
Beijing's dual position — as a powerful member of the U.N. Security Council and one of North Korea's few allies — would give it a unique perspective on the issue.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said that if North Korea agrees to abandon its nuclear ambitions, the United States would want to enter a "a new arrangement" — stronger than a 1994 deal — to better constrain Pyongyang's ability to produce nuclear weapons.
Under the 1994 agreement, the North agreed to abandon all weapons activities in return for U.S. and international aid to build two light-water nuclear reactors for energy production.
The 1994 agreement "left intact the capacity for production. I think, therefore, that we need a new arrangement and not just go back to the existing framework," Powell told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published in its yesterday's editions.
North Korea has protested the suspension of U.S. fuel shipments following its admission last fall of a secret nuclear weapons program. The North says it will resolve U.S. security concerns if Washington signs a nonaggression pact.
Many see the steps as a ploy by a desperately poor and isolated nation to trade its nuclear programs for much-needed assistance and diplomatic ties. On Monday, Fleischer accused North Korea of attempting blackmail.
But the North's news agency report yesterday said recent moves were prompted by Washington's aggressive attitude.
The denial of brinkmanship came a day after Kelly suggested the possibility of American energy aid. Yesterday, Kelly met President Kim Dae-jung's two top security advisers.
"Both sides reaffirmed that they should respond calmly and discreetly to North Korean actions under the principle of resolving the problem peacefully and diplomatically," the presidential office said.
The two sides also agreed to seek cooperation from Russia, China and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency for an "early and peaceful" resolution to the standoff, the news release said.
