North Korea has vowed to bolster its nuclear force unless the US drops its “hostile policy” toward the reclusive communist nation, adding that its atomic program could not be traded for economic aid.
Pyongyang also designated eight new naval firing zones near its eastern and western sea borders with South Korea in a move that could raise tensions.
North Korea dropped out of the disarmament-for-aid talks and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened sanctions from the UN.
North Korea has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks to formally end the 1950 to 1953 Korean War before it returns to the negotiating table.
PEACE ON THE PENINSULA
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency yesterday urged the US to make a political decision to establish peace on the peninsula and change what it calls a policy to stifle the North.
The North’s “nuclear deterrent for self-defense will remain as ever and grow more powerful ... as long as the US nuclear threat and hostile policy persist,” KCNA said on Friday in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
The North’s “dismantlement of its nuclear weapons can never happen ... unless the hostile policy towards the [North] is rolled back and the nuclear threat to it removed,” KCNA said.
North Korea claims it was compelled to develop atomic bombs to cope with US nuclear threats.
The US, which denies making any such threats against the North, has called on North Korea to return to the disarmament talks that also involve China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
KCNA’s comments came amid diplomatic efforts to jump-start the stalled disarmament talks.
ENVOY MEETING
North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan plans to attend a seminar in San Francisco before heading to New York to meet with Washington’s lead nuclear negotiator Sung Kim either late this month or next month, the South Korean cable news network YTN reported on Friday, citing an unidentified source in Beijing.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on Friday denied the report and reiterated that the US has no plans to meet with North Korean officials for the time being.
Officials from the US and North Korea last met one-on-one in December, when US President Barack Obama’s special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang.
Bosworth is considering visiting China next month for talks on how to resume the disarmament talks as part of a trip that could also take him to South Korea and Japan, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported on Friday, citing unidentified US government sources.
FIRING ZONES
The newly designated “naval firing zones” are effective Saturday through Monday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Friday.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said, however, that there was no immediate sign of movement of North Korean troops.
Last month, North Korea fired artillery shells near its disputed western sea border, prompting the South Koreans to fire warning shots.
No injuries or damage were reported.
The North has since deployed dozens of multiple rocket launchers in major bases along its west coast, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a Defense Ministry report submitted to the legislature.
The Defense Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.
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