U.S. says North Korea "miscalculating" (N. Korea Wants To Deal With Kerry)

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States has accused North Korea of miscalculation by refusing to resume talks on its nuclear programmes before the U.S. presidential election while China renewed a diplomatic drive to end the stalemate.

Beijing has played host to three rounds of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. At the last round in June, China, the United States, Russia, Japan and North and Suth Korea agreed to meet in September, but those talks never took place.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a good crystal ball regarding North Korea. But it appears that since we've only got 22 days I think until our election, that the North Koreans don't have much interest in holding talks before then," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters on Tuesday.

"I think this is a miscalculation on their part," Armitage said during a two-day visit to meet Japanese officials and attend an international donors' conference on Iraq.

Analysts say Pyongyang is stalling to see who wins the U.S. presidential election on November 2 because it believes the Democratic contender, Senator John Kerry, will be easier to deal with than President George W. Bush.

Kerry has said he would like to initiate bilateral talks with North Korea alongside the six-way discussions. China has voiced no view on that position.

Taking up the diplomatic baton, China announced on Tuesday that North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, would visit next week and that Beijing's special envoy for Korean affairs would tour "relevant countries" to push for a new round of talks.

North Korea said on Friday it wanted bilateral nuclear talks with the United States but would rejoin stalled six-party meetings at once if Washington dropped its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang.

The nuclear crisis began in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted to pursuing a secret uranium-enrichment programme.

North Korea now denies having such a programme, and has demanded energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for freezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms programme.

Armitage met officials including Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi, and the two sides agreed to continue to urge North Korea to take part in six-way talks without preconditions, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Kim, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit China since the reclusive country's top leader, Kim Jong-il, toured in April.

During the October 18-20 visit, Kim will meet Chinese leaders to "exchange views on some issues in bilateral relations", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a news conference without elaborating.

The visit will be officially to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of relations.

In addition to the nuclear crisis, analysts expect economic cooperation to be a key topic. China has been trying for years to coax its secretive neighbour to reform and open its command economy, following in Chinese footsteps.

China's special envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs will make a two-day visit to South Korea from Wednesday for talks on resuming the stalled six-way talks, and would then visit the United States and Japan, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, quoting the South Korean foreign ministry.

"sheer nonsense" says the Little psycho.

KCNA Urges U.S. to Rebuild Groundwork of Six-party Talks

Pyongyang, October 11 (KCNA) -- U.S. State Deputy Secretary Armitage was reported to have blustered that if north Korea rejects the resumption of the six-party talks it is possible for the U.S. to refer the issue to the UN Security Council so that it may discuss sanctions. This remark arouses the vigilance of the DPRK. This only reveals the U.S. foolish attempt to shift the blame for the delay of the resumption of the six-party talks on to the DPRK and put pressure upon it to come out to the talks.

The public opinion is growing critical of this remark as it indicated the U.S. true intention to settle the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. by strength, not through dialogue.

Senior officials of the U.S. State Department are asserting that the DPRK is deliberately delaying the talks, waiting for the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in the hope that the six-party talks can be represented by a better partner from the U.S. This is sheer nonsense. The DPRK is not in a position to come out to the talks because the U.S. has deliberately laid a stumbling block in the way of the dialogue and dropped a check-bar on it.

The DPRK's stand to seek a negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue remains unchanged. The DPRK set it as its general goal to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, advanced the proposal of "reward for freeze" from a steadfast stand to seek a peaceful negotiated solution to the nuclear issue and has made sincere efforts for its materialization.

Had the U.S. accepted the aboveboard proposal, the fourth round of the six-party talks would have already been held and have proved fruitful.

The U.S., however, clarified its political stance that there can never be any reward even after the DPRK freezes its nuclear facilities, consistently asserted that the DPRK must accept the CVID in an aim to disarm it and has threatened it, saying that the U.S. has even a military option on the table.

What should not be overlooked is the fact that it raised a hue and cry over the fiction of "uranium enrichment" of the DPRK while shutting eyes to the nuclear-related secret experiments conducted by south Korea, as if nothing serious had happened.

These improper acts of the U.S. prompted by its hostile policy toward the DPRK have totally overturned the groundwork of the talks, beclouding their prospect.

This notwithstanding, the U.S. is claiming that the DPRK is to blame for the delay of the resumption of the talks in a bid to mislead the public opinion and contemplating even UN sanctions. This is an intolerable criminal act.

Sanctions mean a war and war does not know any mercy. If the U.S. applies more sanctions to the DPRK by putting the UN in motion, the DPRK will promptly and resolutely react to it with self-defensive war deterrent force.

Then the U.S. will be held wholly responsible for all ensuing fatal consequences.

The U.S. should not talk about sham dialogue which is no more than a window-dressing but take a sincere and constructive stand to approach talks with a true willingness to solve the nuclear issue, judging the reality with reason before regretting belatedly.

If the U.S. is willing to solve the nuclear issue peacefully, though belatedly, it should stop applying double-standards over the nuclear issue, drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK and rebuild the groundwork of the talks.

Only then can the six-party talks be put on its track and can progress be made for a solution to the nuclear issue.

The DPRK is of the view that the nuclear issue can be solved only when both sides of the DPRK and the U.S. discuss the issue from an equal stand of respecting and trusting each other.

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