North Korea rejected a key US demand for easing nuclear tensions yesterday and threatened to link the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea to a settlement, in the latest sign the communist country is trying to bolster its hand ahead of new talks aimed at ending the dispute.
In a dispatch carried by the North's official KCNA news agency, Pyongyang dismissed as "infeasible and unrealistic" Washington's stance that the communist country verifiably and irreversibly dismantle its atomic weapons programs as a first step in resolving the 17-month-long standoff.
US insistence that North Korea "completely, verifiably and irreversibly" begin dismantling its nuclear programs before receiving concessions was a key sticking point in last month's six-nation talks aimed at brokering a deal.
The talks bogged down over differences about what nuclear projects would be subject to dismantlement and how their shutdown would be verified. They ended without a major breakthrough.
North Korea blamed the outcome on "an infeasible and unrealistic old assertion that the DPRK should scrap its nuclear program first."
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
North Korea also reiterated that it may pin the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea to the nuclear talks and demand a "verifiable and irreversible" security guarantee from Washington.
"Now that the US persistently forces a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear program upon the DPRK, the latter cannot but demand the former guarantee a complete, verifiable and irreversible security, the core of which is the total withdrawal of the US troops from South Korea," the KCNA report said.
North Korea has said it is willing to give up its nuclear program in return for energy and economic aid, as well as a US guarantee that it will not invade the communist country.
Pyongyang frequently demands that the US remove its troops from South Korea, but attaching them to the nuclear issue is a new move. The US keeps 37,000 soldiers in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean War.
The new demands, if brought to the negotiating table, could complicate the next round of six-nation talks between the US, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan. The sides agreed to meet again before July and plan to form a lower-level "working group" to work out the details.
Pyongyang frequently accuses the US of planning an attack and has asked Washington for a written security guarantee. Washington says it has no plans to invade and has offered to put something on paper.
In other developments, US and South Korean forces will conduct two military exercises this month, a US military command spokesman said yesterday. The annual exercises are routinely criticized by Pyongyang as preparations for an invasion.
The joint maneuvers will be "defense-oriented," aimed at improving the combined defense of South Korea and the US against ``external aggression,'' US Forces Korea spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said.
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