North Korea Rejects Diplomacy in Nuclear Dispute

Seoul, Jan. 19 2003 (VOA News) -- North Korea has rejected efforts to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program through international diplomacy, insisting that only direct negotiations with the United States can settle the dispute.

In a statement carried Sunday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang specifically spoke out against any involvement by the United Nations.

The report came, as U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton arrived in Beijing for talks with senior Chinese officials expected to focus on North Korea.

The talks stem from an pledge made by President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin during their summit in October to establish a high-level mechanism for consultation on strategic security, arms control and non-proliferation.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met Sunday with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who said afterwards that her government would support U.S. initiatives on North Korea, including security guarantees to the Pyongyang government.

Mr. Kelly said he went into great detail about how the United States and its allies can work to bring North Korea back into compliance with international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Thomas Hubbard, said in Seoul today that the United States would consider economic cooperation to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea says it wants a formal nonaggression pact with the United States. U.S. officials say the U.S. Congress would not approve such a deal, because North Korea reneged on its 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear program.

President Bush and other senior officials have said repeatedly the United States will not attack North Korea. Friday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said such assurances might be put in writing, if Pyongyang stops its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov is in Pyongyang to discuss a Kremlin proposal that calls for resumption of economic aid to the North in return for pledges to keep the Korean peninsula nuclear-free.

-- Voice of America, some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
-- Reprinted with the permission of Voice of America