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Nkorea warns sea of fire Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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AP World Politics
North Korea warns of 'sea of fire' as U.S. envoy arrives in Seoul
2 hours, 52 minutes ago
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) insisted Sunday that it never admitted having a secret nuclear program — the latest conflicting signal it has given in the escalating crisis over its alleged plans to build nuclear weapons.
"The claim that we admitted developing nuclear weapons is an invention fabricated by the U.S. with sinister intentions," South Korea (news - web sites)'s Yonhap news agency quoted the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper as saying.
It wasn't clear if the statement was aimed at influencing a new round of talks on resolving the crisis. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly arrived in South Korea on Sunday to meet President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, who believes diplomacy is the only solution. Kelly also planned to meet Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong and two presidential security advisers.
Kelly will travel Tuesday to China, and then to Singapore, Indonesia and Japan.
The United States believes North Korea has one or two nuclear weapons and could make several more within six months if it extracts weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods at a reprocessing plant.
The newspaper blamed the United States for the current crisis and warned: "If the United States evades its responsibility and challenges us, we'll turn the citadel of imperialists into a sea of fire."
The latest standoff began in October when the United States said the North had admitted to having an atomic weapons program in violation of a 1994 accord, under which Pyongyang pledged to freeze operations at its nuclear facilities in exchange for energy supplies. In response to the admission, the United States suspended fuel shipments, and the North said it would bring reactors at its Yongbyon nuclear facility back online.
In recent days, North Korea ratcheted up tensions even further by withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and suggesting it might resume missile testing.
On Saturday, North Korean leaders vowed at a rally attended by a million people to "smash U.S. nuclear maniacs" in a "holy war," while North Korean Deputy U.N. Ambassador Han Song Ryol told New Mexico's state governor, Bill Richardson — a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites) — that the country had no intention of building nuclear bombs.
"He told me that in a dialogue with the United States, North Korea would discuss America's concerns over verifying its nuclear program. I think that's positive," Richardson said, ending three days of meetings with North Korean envoys.
In an interview with ABC television on Sunday, Richardson said North Korean is ready to negotiate directly with the United States, and he thinks that talks could start soon.
"They don't negotiate like we do. They don't have our same mentality," said Richardson, whom North Korea chose as an intermediary between the two countries. "They believe in order to get something they have to lay out additional cards, step up the rhetoric, be more belligerent."
Also Saturday, a North Korean official said its nuclear plant north of Pyongyang was ready for operation.
The threat of new missile tests came from the North's ambassador to China, Choe Jin Su, who said tests could resume if relations with the United States don't improve.
New tests would be the first since 1998, when North Korea fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang later set a moratorium on tests which was to last into 2004.
Another official left open the possibility of the North reprocessing spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor to make atomic bombs. Son Mun San, who oversees Pyongyang's relations with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, said in Vienna the reprocessing plant now stands in a state of "readiness."
Since the nuclear standoff resumed, the North has removed seals placed on one of its nuclear facilities by IAEA monitors and expelled two U.N. inspectors.
South Korea vowed again Sunday to pursue a diplomatic solution, after National Security Adviser Yim Sung-joon returned from a visit to Washington and Tokyo.
"The government's consistent position is that it will do its best to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully through diplomacy," Yim told the Yonhap news agency.
During a visit to Russia that ended Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged North Korea to rescind its decision to pull out of the treaty.
"That is what's best for North Korea, for the international community," he said. "And this is true for the United States as well."
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Sunday that although North Korea's decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty "is not a threat to the security of Russia ... we are definitely advocating the status of a non-nuclear power for North Korea."
The Kremlin is pushing for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, he said. "Russia is coordinating its policy with China, Japan, the United States and both Koreas," Ivanov said.
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