North Korea claims US damaging peace process

NORTH KOREA, facing a looming deadline in a nuclear disarmament deal, blamed the United States yesterday for hurting the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula with plans to attack the reclusive state.

North Korea is almost certain to miss an end-of-year deadline to give a full account of its nuclear arms programmes under a disarmament-for-aid deal it struck earlier this year with regional powers, including the United States.

“The reality testifies once again that there is no change in the US intention to invade us with force and occupy the whole of Korea, although the US is uttering ‘peace’ and ‘dialogue’,” the North’s communist party newspaper said.