N Korea slams US ahead of talks

2005-07-24 11:18

Beijing - North Korea has lashed out at the United States for "reckless remarks" accusing Pyongyang of threatening regional stability, days before the two meet to discuss the Stalinist state's nuclear programme.

The comments came as Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state for East Asia-Pacific affairs, was due to arrive in Beijing for talks starting on Tuesday aimed at scrapping the North's weapons programme.

The North's statement was in reaction to comments by James A. Leach, chairman of US House of Representatives' subcommittee on Asia and Pacific, on July 14 accusing North Korea of threatening stability in Northeast Asia.

"His utterances betray the US intention to brand the DPRK (North Korea) as a 'nuclear criminal' in a bid to put international 'pressure' upon it," said the official Korean Central News Agency late on Saturday.

"It is a wrong action contrary to an atmosphere of dialogue for the US to point an accusing finger at its dialogue partner at a time when the six-party talks for the settlement of the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula are expected to be resumed soon."

It said the United States should stop such accusations and show sincerity if it wanted to resolve the nearly three-year stand off.

"If the US really wants to settle the nuclear issue through the six-party talks, it should be decent enough to stop uttering anything getting on the nerves of other dialogue partner and approach the talks with sincerity," it said.

North Korea on Friday said the crisis over its nuclear program could be resolved if the United States was willing to normalize ties and replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a full peace accord.

South Korean officials Sunday refused to disclose whether its delegates for the talks, who arrived in Beijing on Saturday, had so far held any meetings with Chinese or North Korean officials.

- AFP