Posted on 05/24/2003 10:13:08 AM PDT by knighthawk
North Korea on Saturday denied what the United States calls the communist state's "blackmail" tactics in a stand-off over its nuclear weapons drive, state media reported. Denouncing the US claims as "far-fetched" and "sinister," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) held Washington responsible for the global as well as regional nuclear tensions.
"The conception of absolute denuclearisation on this planet is quite meaningless unless the US, the nuclear weapon state, proves its anti-nuclear policy by dismantling its nuclear weapons and abandoning its nuclear threat," KCNA said.
"This is the stark reality today created by the US nuclear blackmail policy."
The KCNA comment, refuting the US bid to foil Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, followed a joint pledge on Friday by US President George W Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi never to bow to North Korean "blackmail" over the nuclear impasse.
After meeting with Koizumi at his Texas ranch on Friday, Bush said, "We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give in to blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme."
But KCNA, reiterating Pyongyang's long-held position, demanded on Saturday that Washington first take a reconciliatory step to settle the nuclear crisis.
Why don't we send Kim Jong Il some Daffy Duck tapes, that might win him over, it's his favorite! LOL LOL LOL
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