N. Korea threatens more nukes

SEOUL — North Korea warned it will double its nuclear deterrent force if the United States persists in challenging the North’s nuclear-weapons programs.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, en route to Japan on his Asia trip, rejected Pyongyang’s demands that the United States “reward” the communist country before it will agree to return to six-party discussions on its nuclear programs.

North Korea, which says it has several atom bombs and insists it needs nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. invasion, said yesterday that talks can recommence only when Washington drops its “hostile policy” and promises a “reward for freeze” on its nuclear activities.

“If the U.S. persistently pursues its confrontational, hostile policy toward the DPRK from the viewpoint of escapism, it will only compel the DPRK todouble its deterrent force, much less any solution to the nuclear issue,” Pyongyang’s official Rodong newspaper said, using the acronym for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

On his weekend trip, Mr. Powell intends to consult with Japan, China and South Korea on how to assure the North that Washington is not interested in attacking the country and on how to revive the stalled multilateral talks.

The six-party negotiations include the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. Three rounds of talks, held in Beijing, have yielded little progress. A fourth round was set for September, but North Korea refused to attend.

Pyongyang dismissed Powell’s Asian trip as pre-U.S. election trickery.

The nuclear negotiations started after U.S. officials said North Korea admitted to running a secret atomic bomb program in violation of international agreements. That assertion prompted President Bush to say North Korea was part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and prewar Iraq.

Some U.S. intelligence analysts say North Korea may have up to six nuclear weapons instead of the one or two the Central Intelligence Agency estimates. North Korea says it has several plutonium-based nuclear weapons and denies U.S. charges that it admitted having a secret uranium-based nuclear-weapons program.

North Korea sneered yesterday at Mr. Powell’s trip, with a spokesman from its Foreign Ministry describing Washington’s diplomatic effort as a “sleight of hand in the run-up to the [U.S.] presidential elections.”

The North also demands that the six-nation talks address its charges that South Korea is developing nuclear weapons. Seoul denies the accusations, although it recently admitted its scientists had conducted secret nuclear experiments in the past.

“The resumption of the six-party talks depends on whether the U.S. is ready to fully consider the demands raised by the DPRK,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Washington has said it would provide economic benefits to the North once Pyongyang has demonstrated a credible commitment to permanent and verifiable disarmament.

The visit could well be Mr. Powell’s last to East Asia because it was scheduled within two weeks of the U.S. presidential election. The timing of his trip could be intended as an attempt to show resolve on one of the U.S. government’s most difficult foreign-policy issues.

The Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, contends that the government has mishandled the North Korean problem and should have embraced former President Bill Clinton’s policy of bilateral talks with Pyongyang rather than the six-nation talks.

Story Continues →