NORTH KOREA: The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said yesterday the United States was prepared to tell North Korea it had no intention of attacking the Stalinist state.
"We are prepared to convey this in a way that makes it unmistakeable to North Korea," Mr Powell told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The North hurled abuse at the US overnight, accusing it of sparking the crisis, and demanded direct talks. "The only way of solving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula peacefully and in a most fair way is for the DPRK [North Korea\] and the US to hold direct and equal negotiations."
The Pyongyang spokesman warned against interference by other countries or attempts to turn the issue into a multilateral one.
The crisis was sparked in October when the US said the North had admitted developing nuclear arms. Pyongyang later ejected UN nuclear inspectors, removed seals from a mothballed reactor and pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
As a South Korean envoy prepared yesterday to go to Pyongyang, the UN nuclear watchdog considered giving diplomacy a chance.
Mr Powell said Washington was willing to talk to the North but included the standard US requirement that the talks should be about "how it will meet its obligations to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes.
"We are working with our allies and others in the region . . . to address through diplomacy our common concerns over North Korea's programmes."
The latest flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at persuading the communist North to renounce its nuclear arms ambitions has made the International Atomic Energy Agency pause in its plans for an emergency session as early as next Monday. - (Reuters)