Posted on 02/09/2005 10:56:25 PM PST by AVNevis
Let's double their pleasure.
Make that North.
This isn't a time to play with mispellings.
I alway's thought they had never denied it.
You posted first and got less replies..strange.
North Korea Announces Indefinite Boycott of Nuke Talks
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Thursday it will not attend six-way talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program unless the United States drops its "hostile" policy toward the communist country.
"North Korea cannot participate in the six-party talks if America's hostile policy is not changed," a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said.
South Korea, the United States and three other countries -- Japan, China and Russia -- are trying to persuade North Korea to resume the stalled negotiations.
Three rounds of six-country talks have been held since 2003 to help defuse tension over the North's nuclear program but little progress has been made.
A fourth-round meeting was scheduled to be held before the end of September last year, but North Korea boycotted it, citing Washington's hostile policy.
They posted it on the crawl of FOX News as well.
On FoxNews - Running blurb now - Reuters & AP reporting this
We dont get Hannity and Colmes in NZ unortunately.
AP News Alert
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea says it has nuclear weapons and is suspending its participation in six-nation atomic talks.
The Axis of Evil, should never be taken lightly...
And thanks to Iran, Syria, Jordan, Libya and Russia.
Looks like Clinton/Albright did what the USSR was afraid to do.
Looks like K2 wasn't so ronery after all...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/02/10/nkorea.talks.ap/
Do a Google search....it's all OVER out there.
Related story:
US defense talks with Beijing fail to ease tensions
'COMPLICIT': The US told Chinese officials that they were escalating cross-strait tensions, and the Chinese seem to have made little effort to show otherwise
AGENCIES , WASHINGTON
Thursday, Feb 10, 2005,Page 1
US-China defense talks last week failed to bridge gaps over Taiwan and crisis management issues, a senior US defense official said on Tuesday.
The Pentagon sees a "continuing substantial increase" in Chinese military capabilities and during the talks in Beijing, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Lawless repeated the US view that China is "complicit in creating or escalating tensions" with Taiwan, the official said.
Lawless and his delegation went into the meetings last week hoping to "break the impasse" over an agreement that would ensure the two sides can cooperate in case of sea and air emergencies, the official said.
But the so-called military maritime consultative agreement has for seven years been "semi-hostage" to continuing policy disputes over maritime territorial issues and remains that way, he said.
The senior official said the next Pentagon report will conclude that "the build-up continues apace."
There is a "continuing substantial increase in capabilities, particularly ... to improve their ability to either coerce or attack Taiwan," he said.
"It is a reason for concern and we don't miss any opportunity to express to the Chinese that we think they are complicit in creating or escalating tensions by that particular build-up. We repeated that at this meeting" in Beijing, he added.
The official was speaking about US-Chinese relations to reporters condition of anonymity.
He said the most recent military and defense policy white paper released by Beijing described the US military presence in the Pacific and the security situation regarding Taiwan in troubling ways.
The US presence in the region had "complicated security factors," the Chinese military document stated. And the situation in the Taiwan Strait is "grim," it added.
During recent talks, Pentagon officials pressed their Chinese counterparts to explain those choices of words, which the Defense Department official described as "an escalation in the level of rhetoric."
Contacts between the US and China were cut off after the collision of a US navy surveillance plane with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001. Ties have warmed over the past two years, but tensions remain over Taiwanese and Chinese technology sales to Iran.
The two countries will hold more military talks next month or in April in Washington hosted by US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, the official said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has agreed in principle to visit China this year after repeated invitations, "but there was absolutely no commitment to do so," the official said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/02/10/2003222716
North Korea Admits It Has Nuclear Weapons
10 February 2005, 01:56am ET
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea publicly admitted Thursday for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, and said it wouldn't return to six-nation talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions
Diplomats have said that North Korea has acknowledged having nuclear arms in private talks, but this is the first time the communist government has said so directly to the public.
"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever-more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK refers to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said. "The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."
Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. But no significant progress has been made.
A fourth round scheduled for September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.
Thursday's statement came after President Bush started his second term last month by refraining from direct criticism of North Korea _ raising hopes that the North would return to the stalled nuclear talks. But North Korea said it had little hope for improved ties during Bush's second term office.
"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks," the North said Thursday.
North Korea said it came to its decision because "the U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick."
Still, North Korea said it retained its "principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged."
I wonder if we can pinpoint where these weapons are. We need to give them an ultimatum: dismantle or we will do it for you. End of story.
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