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North Korea calls on South for help
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is calling for the South's help against the United States as a nuclear crisis simmers on the peninsula. As South Korean President Kim Dae-jung sent two envoys to Pyongyang on Monday to try to persuade the secretive North to halt its nuclear ambitions, the North called for inter-Korean cooperation. "Now that the U.S. imperialists' hostile moves against (North Korea) have reached the extremes, national cooperation is the way of saving the nation and the way of patriotism," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said on Sunday. South Korea has been keen to press the North to prove its claims it is not developing nuclear weapons and does not plan to do so. Pyongyang has so far rejected international efforts to seek a resolution to the crisis, and has repeatedly said the dispute can only be resolved through direct talks with Washington. Yet in recent days, it appears to have softened its position, expressing a willingness to accept mediation from the South. Despite the harsh rhetoric, the South's mission may be boosted after the United States said on Sunday it was ready to tell North Korea it has no intention of attacking the hermit state. The nuclear crisis was sparked in October when the United States said the North -- which it brackets along with Iraq and Iran as part of an "axis of evil" -- had admitted developing nuclear arms. In a deepening of the standoff, Pyongyang reactivated frozen nuclear reactors, ejected U.N. nuclear inspectors and pulled out of a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The South Korean envoy trip and a renewed flurry of diplomatic activity follow the U.N. nuclear agency saying it has indefinitely postponed an emergency session aimed at defusing the crisis. The IAEA said it called off the meeting, scheduled for February 3, after the South warned it could undermine efforts to resolve the crisis. Korean bidThe mounting pressure on Pyongyang comes despite South Korea not winning any commitment from the North during inter-Korean talks in Seoul last week. Former reunification minister Lim Dong-won, a security adviser to Kim, accompanied by an envoy of President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, left for Pyongyang on Monday. The envoys, who are expected to carry a personal letter from President Kim, are set to stay in North Korea for two to three days. Further diplomatic offerings are in the works, with Roh telling CNN he planned to propose a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il soon after taking power. "I will propose to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Il even if I lose face in the eyes of my people because I value dialogue and think dialogue is the key," Roh said. (Full story) No intention of attack
For its part, the United States was seeing "some progress" from recent diplomatic overtures to North Korea by Russia, South Korea and Japan, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. And Powell said on Sunday the United States was prepared to tell North Korea in an "unmistakable way" it had no intention of attacking it. While Powell said there was very little trust left between Washington and Pyongyang, he added he was optimistic about a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, saying he believed the United States would eventually hold talks with the North.(Powell sees solution on N. Korea) In other developments, a former U.S. defense secretary says North Korea has ratcheted up the nuclear crisis by starting the reprocessing of nuclear material at its Yongbyon facility. (N. Korea nuke work 'has begun') The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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