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N. Korea: U.S. stance 'illogical'
PYONGYANG, North Korea -- A day after threatening to quit the 1953 armistice, Pyongyang has slammed Washington's rejection of face-to-face talks as "illogical" and aimed at hamstringing North Korea's economic and political development. In the past week, North Korea has upped the ante in its nuclear dispute with the United States, warning of a risk of war on the Korean Peninsula because of an "aggressive stance" from Washington. Though the U.S. has maintained it has no plans to attack the North, it has thus far refused any bilateral dialogue. Instead, Washington is favoring multilateral talks to push Pyongyang to shut down its suspected nuclear weapons program. The North has been demanding direct talks with the Bush administration over the nuclear issue as well as a non-aggression pact, both of which, Pyongyang says, are key to resolving the four-month dispute. "The U.S. is insisting on its strange assertion that it cannot respond to the DPRK-U.S. talks as they mean a sort of reward for the DPRK despite the unanimous world public opinion that DPRK-U.S. direct talks should take place to find a peaceful solution on the nuclear issue," North Korea's mouthpiece KCNA news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying. "This is an illogical far-fetched assertion," the ministry added. DPRK is North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Threat washed downSouth Korea also favors U.S.-North Korean talks and on Tuesday the South's President Kim Dae-jung urged prompt dialogue, saying it was "the only way to solve this problem." Kim also played down dangers of war on the Korean Peninsula despite a new North threat to dissolve the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953. The South Korean president told his cabinet that although the crisis had forced the government to reconsider the threat posed by the North, the risk of war was non-existent. "My conclusion is that I believe the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula is slight -- in fact, non-existent," Kim said, according to comments published by his office. The United States played down Pyongyang's armistice threat as simply the latest in a "predictable" pattern of escalating rhetoric from the North. "You always have to react somewhat judiciously to the statements that North Korea makes. They have a lengthy history of bravado to some of their statements," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday. In the Bush administration's view, Fleischer added, North Korea "remains an issue for the international community to deal with, and that remains our approach." China's key roleAnalysts also discount the substance of Pyongyang's threat as merely more in a long line of rhetoric. "It's very indicative of the way the North operates in terms of increasing the tension and trying to get more attention from the United States," Ray Jovanovich, political analyst with Credit Agricole Asset Management, said. Jovanovich added that it was important for North Korea's close ally China to step up and play a greater role in defusing the crisis. "They've long wanted to command respect as an international player. Recent comments once again indicate they are proceeding with a great deal of caution rather than confident participation," he said. "It's a disappointment. China needs to really play a much more significant role. This is a great opportunity for them to exercise regional leadership." Chinese diplomatic efforts entered a new phase on Tuesday with China's foreign minister meeting his North Korean counterpart to discuss the nuclear standoff. While Beijing declined to say whether they talked about Pyongyang's threat to drop out of the armistice, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the meeting looked at resolving the current crisis through diplomacy and dialogue. (Full story) Reuters contributed to this report.
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