N. Korea urges U.S. to discard policy of 'confrontation'

NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean diplomat warned Monday that
his country will beef up its nuclear arsenal unless the United States changes its
policy of "confrontation" towards Pyongyang but said it will also respond to
dialogue.

"The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula depends on whether or not the U.S.
changes its policy towards Korea," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon
said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
The envoy also said his government will "react to dialogue with a dialogue."
"In order to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the U.S.
administration must discard old concept of confrontation and show the 'change' in
practice, as it recently stated on several occasions," Pak, former ambassador to
the U.N., said in the speech.
He reaffirmed that the communist state, aiming for a nuclear-free peninsula, is
willing to replace the ceasefire that effectively ended the 1950-53 Korean War
with a permanent peace agreement and sign a nonaggression treaty with Washington.
The speech was mostly a repeat of the North's stated stance and a renewed call
for bilateral dialogue with the U.S. to discuss the mentioned issues.
The U.S. has said it was open to direct talks with the North, but only to
persuade it to return to the six-nation denuclearization forum also involving
South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
U.S. officials, however, have not set a date or venue, and have not detailed the
characteristics of such a one-on-one meeting. They stress that the Obama
administration will keep pushing for the implementation of the U.N. sanctions on
the North for its nuclear test in May, even if the two sides are engaged in
bilateral talks.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg was to arrive in Seoul on Tuesday night
(local time) for related discussions.
China, the host of the six-party talks, will be sending its Premier Wen Jiabao to
Pyongyang next week, a trip closely watched as an opportunity to glean North
Korea's intentions.
(END)