North Korea yesterday lashed out at US President George W. Bush for turning "a peaceful world into a pandemonium unprecedented in history," and reaffirmed it won't attend preparatory meetings ahead of planned nuclear disarmament talks.
Last week, Bush referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant," and said he had embarked on six-nation talks to convince Kim to disarm because the US couldn't do it alone.
The next round of talks -- which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea -- are supposed to take place by the end of next month. But North Korea has recently thrown those plans into doubt by saying it won't attend working meetings to prepare for the larger talks.
Alleging that Bush has ramped up his hostile rhetoric, an unnamed spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry said Bush's comments "clearly disclosed that it is the real intention of the US to bring down the system in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] by force though everything in the world may change."
"The meeting of the working group for the six-party talks can not be opened because the US has become more undisguised in pursuing its hostile policy towards the DPRK, backtracking from all agreements and common understanding reached at the third round of the six-party talks," the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
In Seoul, officials said South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will visit China and Japan this week to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue, including resuming the preparatory talks.
Some media reports have speculated the North is seeking to delay the next round of talks until after the US presidential election in November, hoping to get a better offer from a new administration -- something the North has denied.
The US has pushed for North Korea to fully disclose all of its nuclear activities and allow outside monitoring before it receives concessions. The North wants energy aid, lifting of economic sanctions and removal from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The North also leveled personal attacks at Bush, calling him "a political imbecile bereft of even elementary morality as a human being and a bad guy, much less being a politician" and said he had started wars in Iraq and elsewhere "to commit genocide as he pleases."
"Bush is a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade and his group of such tyrants is a typical gang of political gangsters," the statement said.
It added that North Korea would increase its defense capabilities a "thousand times."
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS