NORTH KOREA: On the eve of a UN Security Council meeting on North Korea, Pyongyang yesterday accused the United States of planning "military terrorism" against it over its nuclear ambitions.
"The US rulers are keen to perpetrate military terrorism, state terrorism against the DPRK, groundlessly terming it 'terrorism sponsor' and 'a rogue state'," said a commentary in the communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun.
Washington has lumped North Korea with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil".
The impoverished communist state - officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - has accused Washington of pressing for the Security Council to take up the nuclear issue as a prelude to war once the Iraq conflict is over.
The Security Council meets today to discuss a response to North Korea's decision to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Tomorrow, Pyongyang's withdrawal from the NPT becomes official with the end of a formal 90-day notice period.
Pyongyang says it will ignore the council and would consider sanctions (highly unlikely for now) to be a declaration of war.
"You have to expect a ratcheting up by North Korea this week," said Brad Glosserman of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum CSIS think-tank.
The nuclear crisis has hit foreign investment in South Korea and put international ratings agencies on their guard.
The official KCNA news agency quoted the chief of the general staff of the North Korean army, Kim Yong-chun, as saying the United States would be wholly responsible if dialogue failed to defuse the crisis.
"The DPRK will have no other option but to beef up the military deterrent force to avert a war and defend the sovereignty and security of the country and the nation by mobilising its potential to the maximum," Gen Kim said.
North Korea says it will discuss its atomic plans only with Washington as part of a non-aggression pact. The United States says any talks must include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
China has backed North Korean demands for face-to-face talks, but is coming under heavy diplomatic pressure to use its influence to break the impasse.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi met Chinese officials on Monday and South Korea's new foreign minister, Yoon Young-kwan, is due in Beijing tomorrow to discuss North Korea.