North Korea dismisses Bush olive branch as 'pie in the sky'
North Korea today spurned President George Bush’s olive branch of dialogue, describing it as “pie in the sky” and possible aid if the communist state dismantles its nuclear weapons programmes.
The president yesterday held out the prospect of food and energy aid if the rogue Stalinist state gives up its nuclear ambitions.
But North Korea maintains that it would not accept any offer of dialogue with conditions attached.
Washington’s “loudmouthed supply of energy and food aid are like a painted cake pie in the sky as they are possible only after the DPRK (North Korea) is totally disarmed,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in the capital Pyongyang.
“It is clear that the US talk about dialogue is nothing but a deceptive drama to mislead the world public opinion,” he said
The spokesman said his country’s nuclear issue can be resolved only when both sides negotiate “on an equal footing through fair negotiations that may clear both sides of their concerns.”
He repeated the North’s stand that the nuclear issue can be resolved if the United States agrees to a nonaggression treaty. Washington has ruled out any talks before the North gives up its nuclear ambitions.
While North and South Korea today set dates for high-level talks, the reclusive regime in Pyongyang, kept up its drumbeat of anti-American invective.
State media blamed nuclear proliferation on the US and accused Washington of using its weapons to threaten and blackmail other nations.
Pyongyang radio called for a joint Korean struggle against “US. imperialists.” North Korea accuses Washington – South Korea’s key ally – of plotting a war against it.
“If the North and South join forces and take a joint stand, we can protect the nation’s dignity and safety and shatter US arrogance,” said the station.
While the North has maintained its antagonistic stance against the United States, it has not made any alarming moves on the ground.
But the US military has spotted increased patrols by North Korean soldiers over the past week in one area of the Demilitarised Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula, said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Margotta, who commands a combined battalion of US and South Korean soldiers.
But the moves in the 2.5-mile-wide, 156-mile-long DMZ were “not alarming, just unusual,” and were probably “triggered by a heightening of tensions,” said Margotta.
The North Koreans have also occupied a guard tower in the DMZ that had not been used in years, he said.
The public bluster had no effect on diplomatic moves in the region. In Seoul, the South Korean government announced that it had agreed with Pyongyang to hold Cabinet-level talks on January 21-24.
The confrontation over the North’s nuclear weapons programs was expected to be on the agenda.
Tensions on the peninsula have been rising since North Korea admitted in October to having a secret nuclear program. Last week the communist regime announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and threatened to suspend its moratorium on missile tests.
South Korean officials have said they would use all inter-Korean contacts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. The forthcoming talks would be the ninth round the two countries have had since a North-South summit in June 2000 and the first since October.
South Korea’s President-elect Roh Moo-hyun today called the US-South Korean alliance the ”driving force” for security in the region.
“We can never accept North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme,” Roh said, calling for an international diplomatic effort to defuse the stand-off. “The South Korean-US alliance should be the basis for this effort,” he said.
The United States keeps 37,000 troops based in South Korea.
