In recent days, North Korea has pulled further inward, expelling two UN nuclear inspectors and threatening to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to free its nuclear facilities from international controls.
On Wednesday, North Korea urged South Korea to prevent war by backing the North in its confrontation with the US over the nuclear issue.
"It is an urgent national task to avert the danger of war and preserve peace on the Korean Peninsula," the communist North said in a New Year's message.
Missak Demirdjian, one of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors expelled by Pyongyang, arrived Wednesday at Vienna's Schwechat airport on a flight from Beijing.
US President George W. Bush said earlier this week that he was confident the problem could be solved through diplomacy. "This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Bush said.
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