N.Korea leadership is desperate. Almost like a hostage holding terrorist with a bomb strapped to themselves, but on an obviously much greater scale.
For many reasons, the DOW has seen its highs for the year. Consider it officially called.
N. Korea Leaves Nuclear Weapons Treaty
26 minutes ago
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) withdrew from a global treaty Friday that bars it from making nuclear weapons, but said it was willing to talk to Washington to end the escalating crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. South Korea (news - web sites) called the issue a matter of "life and death."
AP Photo
Beyond pulling out of the treaty, a keystone to global nuclear nonproliferation, the North warned the United States not to take military action against it. Pyongyang said a "new Korean War will finally lead to the Third World War" and that the North could hold its own in a "fire-to-fire standoff." The comment was distributed by the official North Korean news agency in English.
Washington said it was not surprised by the move, noting that Pyongyang was violating the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty at any rate by secretly pursuing weapons development and flouting U.N. safeguards. The Bush administration believes the North already has one or two nuclear bombs.
"This is not at all unexpected," said John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, who was visiting Thailand. "The North Koreans were not adhering to the treaty when they were still a party to it."
China, meanwhile, expressed concern over its ally's decision to jettison the treaty. In a statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, the government said it wants to see a peaceful settlement of the dispute.
"We are concerned about the DPRK's announcement to withdraw from the treaty, as well as consequences possibly caused by the withdrawal," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue was quoted as saying, referring to the North by the initials of its formal name.
Australia, Japan, the Philippines and Russia were among countries that expressed deep concern. Britain condemned the North Korean move as "a wrong decision."
The treaty says a nation that withdraws from the pact must give notification three months in advance. North Korea, however, said it was withdrawing as of Saturday.
The communist country said it had quit the treaty because of alleged U.S. aggression, but said it had no intention of producing nuclear weapons and would use its nuclear program only for peaceful purposes "at this stage."
Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, was hosting a second day of discussions Friday in Santa Fe with two North Korean U.N. diplomats. They met for two hours over dinner on Thursday.
"The talks were cordial but candid," said Richardson's spokesman Billy Sparks .
Richardson visited North Korea on two diplomatic missions while he was still a member of Congress during the 1990s.
The declaration heightened tension as the United States and its allies seek a diplomatic solution, although Pyongyang's action could mean that it is trying to pressure the United States into making concessions. North Korea wants Washington to sign a nonaggression treaty and give it economic aid.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung (news - web sites) said dialogue was the only way to solve the nuclear crisis, which he called a matter of "life and death."
His National Security Council held an emergency meeting. Afterward, the Foreign Ministry said the North's withdrawal was a "serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula" and urged it to retract its decision.
The nuclear tension could be discussed at Cabinet-level talks between the two Koreas that are scheduled for Jan. 21-24 in Seoul. However, North Korea says the issue is strictly a matter between it and the United States.
In a clear signal it feared losing face, the government said through KNCA:
"We can no longer remain bound to the NPT, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon."
"Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention of producing nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," the news agency said.
However, analysts say a nuclear reactor in the North Korean town of Yongbyon — the focus of the latest dispute — provides a negligible amount of power. The facility was the centerpiece of a weapons program until it was frozen in a 1994 energy deal with the United States.
U.S. officials said that North Korean negotiators acknowledged in October that they had a second, clandestine nuclear program.
In 1993, North Korea also announced that it was withdrawing from the treaty, but suspended the decision three months later and entered talks with the United States. It again left open the possibility of a negotiated solution.
"If the U.S. drops its hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and stops its nuclear threat to it, the DPRK may prove through a separate verification between the DPRK and the U.S. that it does not make any nuclear weapons," the North Korean government statement said.
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the communist state's official name.
However, the North's defiant posture raises the possibility that the International Atomic Energy Agency will send the matter to the U.N. Security Council, which could choose to impose economic sanctions. Such a step could lead to more defiance from the isolated North.
The treaty says a nation that withdraws from the pact must give notification three months in advance. North Korea, however, said it was withdrawing immediately.
The crisis worsened last month when Pyongyang expelled U.N. inspectors at the Yongbyon site and said it was reactivating the facilities. Experts say North Korea could make several more bombs within six months if it extracts weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods.
North Korea joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1985. In 1994, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon under an energy deal with the United States. Those facilities are the focus of the new crisis.
Only four other countries — Cuba, India, Israel and Pakistan — are not signatories, though Cuba is a member of a treaty establishing a nuclear-free zone in Latin America.
A U.N. relief official, meanwhile, appealed for more food aid for North Korea as part of the World Food Program's plans to feed 6.5 million North Koreans this year, said Richard Corsino, the WFP's director for North Korea. The isolated, Stalinist dictatorship has relied on foreign food aid since the mid-1990s.
"We don't have enough contributions at this point to give us any degree of confidence that we will be able to meet our targets for the first half of this year," said Corsino, who stopped in Beijing after a visit to WFP headquarters in Rome.
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