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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
Since the year-long nuclear crisis erupted, North Korea has repeatedly demanded a legally binding non-aggression pact with Washington, maintaining the United States was planning to invade the country and topple its leadership.
The new proposal from US President George W. Bush for a written, multilateral security guarantee fell far short of the mark, the Stalinist state's official media said.
"It is really a laughable thing which is not even worthy of consideration," the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station said in a commentary monitored here by Yonhap news agency.
It was North Korea's first reaction to Bush's endorsement of a plan to offer written security assurances to North Korea from Washington and its partners in six-party talks aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.
Responding to North Korea's rejection of his offer, Bush said he would perservere with efforts engage North Korea.
"My only reaction is we'll continue to send a very clear message to the North Koreans," Bush told reporters during a stopover on the Indonesian island of Bali.
"Assuming that he's willing to abandon his nuclear weapons designs and programs, we will stay the course."
Bush earlier emphatically ruled out North Korea's demand for a bilateral non-aggression pact when he attended a summit of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok on Monday and Tuesday.
North Korea renewed its demand, however, saying a non-aggression pact was the only peaceful way out of the nuclear crisis.
"If the United States is sincere in its wish to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully and to resume the six-way talks, it must drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and express its wish to sign a non-aggression treaty," said the radio commentary, according to Yonhap.
Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States held three days of inconclusive multilateral talks with North Korea in Beijing in August. No date has been set for a resumption of the talks which North Korea has since described as useless.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell was consulting with his counterparts on the form of a security assurance. Powell floated the non-aggression proposal last week, only to have North Korea dismiss the offer as an "empty piece of paper" and say it would step up its nuclear weapons program as a result.
Pyongyang has been locked in a year-long stand-off with the United States and its allies which are demanding a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula.
The crisis erupted in October last year when Washington said Pyongyang admitted to running a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear safeguard accord.
In retaliation, the United States stopped its fuel supply to energy-starved North Korea which later reactivated a mothballed nuclear power plant to produce weapons-grade plutonium in protest.
North Korea's Central Broadcasting Station said the US-proposed written security guarantee was not worthy of consideration.
"We have demanded the withdrawal of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and the conclusion of a non-agression treaty but we have not asked for anything like a written guarantee for security," it said.
"It is really a laughable thing, which is not even worthy of consideration that the United States may give us the so-called security guarantee within a multilateral framework on condition that we abandon nuclear deterrence."
APEC leaders declared their support for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula but issued no official statement on the nuclear crisis and backed away from any condemnation of North Korea.