N Korea: US sanctions mean war

2003-01-07 08:00

Seoul - Communist North Korea, suspected by Washington of making nuclear weapons, urged the United States on Tuesday to sit down to talks and said economic sanctions would mean war with "no mercy".

Its warning came hours after US President George W Bush said he remained open to dialogue with the reclusive North, which he has branded part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran, and after the UN nuclear watchdog gave Pyongyang a last chance to readmit expelled inspectors.

It also coincides with the departure of a South Korean presidential envoy to Washington in a fresh bid to defuse the crisis.

In a report complaining about the United States' brief seizure of a shipload of North Korean missiles bound for Yemen last month, Pyongyang's KCNA news agency said Washington's assertion of the right to intercept ships was proof of its "illegal and inhuman hostile policy towards the DPRK (North Korea)" and its unilateralism.

"What matters is that such piracy is being committed as part of the US-tailored containment strategy against the DPRK. The strategy means total economic sanctions aimed at isolating and stifling the DPRK.

"Sanctions mean a war and the war knows no mercy. The US should opt for dialogue with the DPRK, not for war, clearly aware that it will have to pay a very high price for such reckless acts."

North Korea must cooperate with inspectors

South Korean national security adviser Yim Sung-joon, despatched to Washington on Tuesday, was expected to suggest that the United States give North Korea security assurances and promises to resume energy supplies in return for the North abandoning its nuclear programme.

In Vienna on Monday the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution saying that North Korea must cooperate with its inspectors or be reported to the UN Security Council for breaching nuclear safeguards.

A South Korean official said the international community backed the ultimatum from the IAEA.

"Basically, the IAEA's decision reflects the international community's unified voice and we hope that North Korea will take the message," said Kim Moon-hwan, from Seoul's foreign ministry.

Tension has risen on the Korean peninsula since late December when North Korea expelled the agency's inspectors and fired up a reactor mothballed in 1994 when it agreed to end such work in exchange for oil from the United States and its allies.

Bush said the United States would talk with North Korea but a White House official said dialogue could start only after the North dismantles its nuclear weapon programmes.

"We'll have dialogue. We've had dialogue with North Korea," Bush told reporters after a cabinet meeting..

He did not elaborate on the kind of dialogue he envisaged but said the United States had no intention of invading North Korea.

North face possible economic collapse

Washington has previously ruled out immediate negotiations with North Korea while saying that low-level contacts continued through the North Korean UN mission in New York.

Impoverished North Korea depends on foreign food aid after years of poor harvests, mismanagement and hunger. Analysts say the North may have sparked the latest confrontation in the hope of wresting more concessions from the West.

A South Korean analyst said the North faced the danger of economic collapse.

"I don't think the North Korea crisis will go to the extreme," said Kim Young-ik, a senior economist with Daishin Securities.

"What we should be concerned about the most is the collapse of the North Korean economy which will make a deep dent in our economy and the Chinese economy."

The United States says it has no intention of striking a new deal to replace the 1994 agreement that mothballed the Yongbyon nuclear complex capable of producing weapons-grade material in return for free oil and safe nuclear reactors.

Channels are available

"We're not looking to renegotiate the issue, we're not looking to make some other bargain... The solution here lies in North Korea visibly and verifiably dismantling these programmes," said US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher.

"But there are channels that they can communicate with us, if they want," he told a daily briefing.

US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly had separate talks on Monday with South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik and Mitoji Yabunaka, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's bureau of Asian and Oceanian affairs.

All three were to meet on Tuesday and make a statement on their conclusions.

- Reuters