|
  |
|
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
North Korea: 'Nuke crisis not our fault'
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- North Korea has responded to President Bush's State of the Union speech saying the on-going stand-off over its nuclear program is not its doing and is demanding Washington sign a non-aggression treaty. At a news conference in Beijing Friday, North Korean ambassador Choe Jin Su said his country would stick by its refusal to participate in any multi-national talks to resolve the dispute, insisting it can only be resolved with bilateral talks with the United States. "The only way out is to conclude a non-aggression treaty with the United States, which should be ratified by Congress," Choe said. He said any such agreement would have to be ratified by U.S. lawmakers because President Bush is "not trustworthy." North Korea which has not admitted restarting its nuclear program, says the dispute is entirely the fault of the U.S. which has failed to live up to previous agreements. 'Ill feelings'The Bush administration halted fuel shipments to the North last year, saying Pyongyang's secret nuclear weapons program nullified a 1994 agreement. Choe added that Bush's comments about North Korea in Tuesday's State of the Union address, showed the administration's "ill feelings" toward the North Korean system. While not referring to North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" as he did in his last State of the Union speech, Bush gave a harsh assessment of the Pyongyang regime, saying it "rules a people living in fear and starvation." Referring to allegations by the United States that North Korea has restarted a nuclear program suspended in the mid-1990s, Bush said, "America and the world will not be blackmailed." "America is working with the countries of the region -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia -- to find a peaceful solution, Bush said. He added that the North Korean government would be shown "that nuclear weapons will bring only isolation, economic stagnation and continued hardship." -- CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Jaime Flor Cruz contributed to this report
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
