N Korea: arms pact is a ‘dead document’

NORTH KOREA yesterday said a 1992 pact intended to keep the divided Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons was a “dead document.”

As South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun visited the United States, a long report carried on the communist North’s official KCNA news agency, accused Washington of scuppering the pact. It claimed the US undermined the 1992 North-South Korea nuclear declaration.

Roh meets President Bush today to discuss a US standoff with the North over its nuclear intentions before possible follow-up talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

In April, the North told US officials at talks in Beijing that it had atomic bombs.

US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the US did not plan a detailed counter to North Korea’s arms-for-aid proposal and was looking at ways to crack down on North Korean narcotics and missile exports.

In New York, Roh said Pyongyang had no choice but to ditch its nuclear ambitions.

KCNA listed nuclear arms it said had been based in the South.

The North has often said the US still has atomic weapons in the South, where 37,000 US troops are based.