NORTH KOREA (voa) – North Korea has denounced the United States as an “empire of the devil,” less than a day after one of its senior diplomats offered to resume talks with Washington.
North Korea’s official Central News Agency accused the United States Friday of having the largest cache of weapons of mass destruction in the world. The North Korean statement said this poses a “grave threat to world peace and stability.” It also blasted the Bush Administration for proposed increases in the U.S. military budget.
The denunciation appeared to be a response to Mr. Bush’s recent State of the Union address, in which he called North Korea (along with Iran and Iraq) part of an “axis of evil” that is aiding terrorists and developing weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea’s comments came less than a day after its U.N. ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, said his government is prepared to resume negotiations with the United States. Mr. Pak told the Associated Press Thursday that his government is ready to talk, in his words, on an “equal basis without any preconditions.”
The news agency says Mr. Pak declined to comment on President Bush’s suggestion that North Korea should pull back some of its forces from its border with South Korea, as a sign of good will.
Bush administration officials previously reaffirmed the United States’ willingness to resume meetings on security issues with the Communist North, meetings that have been stalled for a year.
Mr. Pak is North Korea’s highest-ranking North Korean official on U.S. soil, because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
