N Korea in bid to get South on side

SOUTH KOREA'S Defence Ministry called for a stronger alliance with Washington, while North Korea stepped up its campaign yesterday to bring South Korea to its side in a standoff with the United States.

The ministry backed the presence of US troops in South Korea, saying their withdrawal "could send foreign investors flooding out of the country in fear of instability, throw the economy into turmoil and give North Korea a chance for provocation".

"North Korea tries to weaken the South Korea-US alliance's capability of deterring war," it said in a commentary in the January issue of the ministry's "Defence News." South Korea must strengthen its alliance with Washington to check North Korea and also protect security in north-east Asia, a region with a history of conflicts, it said. About 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea.

The commentary is an attempt by the ministry to counter demands among some South Koreans that the US withdraw its troops from South Korea to ease tension and accelerate reconciliation between the two

Koreas. North Korea kept silent yesterday on a new US offer of dialogue to discuss curbing its nuclear weapons program.

Instead, it warned of an "increasing danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula" because of the US, and urged the two Koreas to "pool their efforts and condemn and frustrate the US nuclear policy for aggression".

"It is plain to everyone that if a nuclear war breaks out in Korea, it will bring catastrophic disasters to the Koreans in both parts of Korea," said a commentary carried by KCNA, North Korea's State-run news agency. North Korea has been urging more co-operation with South Korea in an attempt to drive a wedge between South Korea and its key ally, the US.

Ending two days of consultations in Washington with Japan and South Korea, Washington said on Tuesday it was willing to talk to North Korea but will not make concessions to freeze the North's nuclear programmes.

In a joint statement, the allies

endorsed solving the dispute through dialogue.

In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the three allies "are prepared for discussions" with North Korea.

South Korea wrote off the North's attempts to divide the allies as propaganda.

But it also welcomed the apparent softening in Washington, which had previously said it would not talk to North Korea unless it scraps its

nuclear programmes first.

Lee Tae-shik, the chief South Korean delegate to the Washington talks, urged North Korea to accept the US overture.

"North Korea's open willingness to abandon its nuclear programmes should be the starting point for dialogue," Lee was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news.