North Korea dismisses nuke test reports

North Korea today dismissed reports that it was preparing a nuclear test, calling them US propaganda, and blamed Washington for the impasse in international talks to disarm the hard-line state.

“The US is making noise, saying that our country will have an underground nuclear test in June and it will notify the International Atomic Energy Agency, Japan and other related countries,” the North’s main state-run Rodong Sinmun daily wrote in a commentary, according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The US government intends to brand North Korea as “a ’nuclear criminal’. By all means, gang up against us and try to stifle us,” the newspaper wrote, calling Washington’s position “propaganda”.

“This tells us that the US is not behaving normally and is a country we cannot deal with,” the paper said.

US officials said last week that spy satellites show possible preparations for North Korea’s first-ever nuclear weapons test, including the digging and refilling of a large hole at a suspected test site in north-eastern Kilju along with the apparent construction of a reviewing stand being erected some distance away.

North Korea claimed in February to have built a nuclear weapon, and international experts believe it has enough plutonium to build about six bombs. The North also recently shut down a nuclear reactor, a move that could allow it to harvest yet more plutonium.

The move comes as Pyongyang has refused to return to six-nation disarmament talks since last June, after three rounds ended without any breakthroughs. US officials have said the deadlock can’t go on forever and that other moves might be required, believed to include seeking sanctions in the UN Security Council.

Today, the North claimed Washington was to blame for the stalemate in the talks, which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

“Our country did everything that we could do to solve the problems with the highest flexibility and tolerance through the previous six-party talks,” Rodong Sinmun wrote. “The US is fully responsible for the slow progress of the six-party talks and the delay in solving nuclear problems.”

The North has demanded the US drop its “hostile” policy toward it and apologise for comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labelling it one of the world’s “outposts of tyranny”.