North Korea called US Vice President Dick Cheney a "bloodthirsty beast" and said Thursday his recent remarks labeling its ruler Kim Jong-il irresponsible are another reason for it to stay away from six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
"What Cheney uttered at a time when the issue of the six-party talks is high on the agenda is little short of telling [North Korea] not to come out for the talks," an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
`hostile US policy'
Nearly a year since the last session of the six-nation talks, North Korea has refused to return to the table, citing a "hostile" US policy. More recently, it has also called for an apology for being labeled one of the world's "outposts of tyranny" by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In a Sunday interview on CNN, Cheney called North Korean leader Kim "one of the world's most irresponsible leaders" who runs a police state and leaves his people in poverty and malnutrition.
US President George W. Bush himself has sounded a more conciliatory tone, referring to Kim this week at a news conference using the title "Mr."
Rice has also said the US recognizes the North as a sovereign nation, and US officials insist they have no intention to attack the communist state.
`hawkish hardliners'
But North Korea said yesterday that the remarks by Cheney, "boss of the hawkish hard-liners, revealed the true colors of this group steering the implementation of the policy of the Bush administration."
The North also leveled a bitter personal attack on Cheney, saying he was "hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood."
Despite the tough talk, the North said it maintains its commitment to ending the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula and seeking a peaceful solution to the current standoff.
"But if the US persists in its wrong behavior, misjudging our magnanimity and patience as a sign of weakness, this will entail more serious consequences," the spokesman said, without any elaboration.
`Rice in control'
This week, Pyongyang's state media also lashed out at Rice in harsh personal terms, implying she was in control of the White House.
Meanwhile, the North also yesterday criticized a US Defense Department decision to halt missions to recover remains of thousands of US soldiers from the Korean War and said it would disband its own search unit.
"In consequence, the US remains buried in Korea can never be recovered but are bound to be reduced to earth with the flow of time," a North Korean army spokesman said, according to KCNA.
Washington said it was halting the missions, which began in 1996, out of concerns for US troops' safety. Pyongyang denied they had ever been at risk and said the Americans had been able to remove remains "without having even a single fingernail hurt."
Also yesterday, the North called demanded the US withdraw 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters recently deployed here on a regular annual training exercise.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the news broadcasts of which are funded by the government to export US values to the world. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000
RSS