North Korea rejects US talks offer as ‘deceptive’

NORTH Korea yesterday rejected US offers of dialogue and possible aid if it abandons its nuclear ambitions, calling them “pie in the sky” and a “deceptive drama” to appeal to public opinion.

One day after US officials held out the prospect of food and energy supplies, Pyongyang declared it would not accept any offer of dialogue with conditions attached.

Washington’s “loudmouthed supply of energy and food aid are like a pie in the sky, as they are possible only after the DPRK is totally disarmed,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the official news agency KCNA.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer yesterday said the White House had heard no official word from Pyongyang.

“That’s an additional unfortunate comment that North Korea has made,” he said of the North’s reported dismissal of a possible aid deal.

The US has been seeking a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis, and in a further step toward a peaceful settlement, North and South Korea yesterday set dates for cabinet-level talks from January 21 to 24.

US envoy James Kelly, before meetings in Beijing on the North Korean stalemate, said he was “reassured” by efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons development.

Kelly earlier this week had extended one of Washington’s tentative aid offers.

China has offered to host negotiations between the United States and North Korea.

Still, there were signs the North has increased military patrols near its border with the South, and the reclusive regime in Pyongyang kept up its stream of anti-American invective through its state-run media.

In addition to rejecting the possibility of aid, the North also blamed nuclear proliferation on the US and has accused Washington of using its weapons to threaten and blackmail other nations.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been rising since North Korea admitted in October to having a secret nuclear program.

Last week the communist regime withdrew from a global treaty aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons, and threatened to resume missile tests.

The US military spotted increased patrols by North Korean soldiers over the past week in part of the

Demilitarised Zone dividing the peninsula, said Lt Col Matthew Margotta, who commands a combined battalion of US and South Korean soldiers.

The North Koreans have also occupied a guard tower in the Demilitarised Zone that hadn’t been used in years, he said.