US warned against seeking collapse of North Korean regime

South Korea’s president lashed out today at hardliners in Washington seeking to force the collapse of North Korea’s totalitarian regime, as the Foreign Ministry criticised a US account of a meeting on preventing criminal activity by the North.

The verbal barrage from Seoul underscored the strains in its relationship with its longtime ally, the US, amid a stalled effort to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes. North Korea reiterated today that it won’t return to the international arms talks until Washington lifts sanctions it recently imposed over the North’s alleged financial crimes.