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From the Associated Press |
N. Korea Cuts Off U.N. Command
Contact
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) - Claiming the United States may attack, North
Korea on Wednesday cut off the only regular military contact with the
U.S.-led U.N. Command that monitors the Korean War armistice.
The move will further isolate the communist North amid tensions over
its suspected nuclear weapons programs.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday dismissed as
``groundless'' allegations by the North that American forces may attack.
``There will be no war on the Korean Peninsula as long as we do not
want a war,'' Roh was quoted as saying by his office, adding that
Washington has repeatedly pledged to resolve the crisis peacefully
Meanwhile, U.N. envoy Maurice Strong said that North Korean officials
told him in meetings in Pyongyang last week that they ``reserved the
right'' to reprocess their spent fuel rods that experts say could yield
enough plutonium for several atomic bombs within months. Such a move would
spike tension even further.
North's Korea People's Army sent a telephone message to the U.N.
Command saying it will no longer send its delegates to the
liaison-officers' meeting at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom.
``It is meaningless to sit together with the U.S. forces side to
discuss any issue as long as it remains arrogant,'' the North's official
news agency KCNA quoted the North Korean message as saying.
North Korea claimed again Tuesday the United States may attack the
communist state after the war in Iraq and spark a ``second Iraqi crisis.''
It pledged to beef up its defenses.
The U.N. Command, which has monitored the armistice since the end of
the 1950-53 war, had no immediate comment. Without a peace treaty, the
Korean Peninsula is still technically at a state of war.
U.S. officials representing the U.N. Command have met North Korean
officers at Panmunjom almost weekly since the end of the war.
In Japan, space agency officials were preparing to launch their first
spy satellites into orbit on Friday. North Korea has condemned the move,
prompting fears it may retaliate and test-fire a long-range missile.
Meanwhile, North Korean lawmakers convened the country's rubber-stamp
parliament. The 687-member Supreme People's Assembly usually meets once or
twice a year to approve a new budget and discuss policies for the year
ahead.
North Korea's Central Radio reported that the parliamentary session
opened with deputies paying tribute to the statues of leader Kim Jong Il
and his father, late President Kim Il Sung, vowing to remain loyal to the
totalitarian regime.
North Korea accuses Washington of inciting a dispute over its alleged
programs to develop nuclear weapons to create an excuse for invasion.
President Bush has branded the North part of an ``axis of evil'' with Iraq
and Iran.
Washington says it seeks a diplomatic solution to the crisis - but Bush
has said that if diplomacy fails a military solution may be considered.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan left Wednesday for
Washington to discuss North Korea with Secretary of State Colin Powell and
other U.S. officials.
During his four-day visit, Yoon also hopes to arrange a summit in the
United States between presidents Roh and Bush, which he said would take
place in late April at the earliest.
With the United States focused on Iraq, experts fear North Korea might
use the opportunity to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to make atomic bombs.
The standoff flared in October when U.S. officials said Pyongyang
admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.
Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments, promised under that
agreement, and Pyongyang retaliated by withdrawing from the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and taking steps to reactivate a nuclear facility
capable of producing several bombs within months.
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