Annan urges talks over North Korea

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has today urged North Korea not to escalate an “extremely difficult” situation and called on the US to hold bilateral talks with the communist nation.

Mr Annan expressed concern at North Korea’s reported nuclear test on Monday, its threat to conduct another test and warning that UN sanctions would be tantamount to a declaration of war – moves which have heightened tensions especially in Japan and South Korea.

“I would urge the North Korean authorities not to escalate the situation any further,” Mr Annan told reporters at a news conference.

“We already have an extremely difficult situation,” he added.

Asked whether he believes the US and North Korea should hold bilateral talks, he said: “I have always argued that we should talk to parties whose behaviour we want to change, whose behaviour we want to influence, and from that point of view I believe that ... (the) US and North Korea should talk.”

US President George Bush is today facing questions about North Korea’s claimed nuclear test as well as the political fallout from a congressional intern scandal.

The news conference comes as the United Nations is weighing sanctions against North Korea for its reported test. The US, Britain and France are seeking a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which makes sanctions mandatory and opens the possibility of military enforcement.

Meanwhile, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today called possible UN sanctions against Iran an empty threat and said the Security Council has no right to intervene in the country’s nuclear programme.

“They want to force the Iranian nation to withdraw from its nuclear rights, under a hollow threat,” Mr Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Shahriar, a suburb of Tehran.

His statements came as US Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns and counterparts in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China were to confer about possible sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

“These three or four countries are bullying, they have no right to intervene. The Security Council has no right to intervene,” Ahmadinejad said. The US, China, Russia, Britain and France are the council’s veto-wielding members.

Mr Ahmadinejad promised the crowd that Iranians would see “bigger victories” in the near future, but he did not elaborate.

Although Ahmadinejad denounces the West for its opposition to Iran’s nuclear program, he invited the West to adopt a friendly approach towards Iran.

“Hasn’t the time arrived for you to be friends with the Iranian nation?” he asked rhetorically. “We are for dialogue and peace. We are not for waging war against anybody.”

Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran’s nuclear program is only for peaceful uses.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium until doubts about the country’s nuclear program have been cleared. Uranium must be enriched before it can be used in either nuclear reactors or atomic weapons.