North Korea called US Vice President Dick Cheney a "bloodthirsty beast" and said Thursday his recent remarks labeling its ruler Kim Jong-il irresponsible are another reason for it to stay away from six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
"What Cheney uttered at a time when the issue of the six-party talks is high on the agenda is little short of telling [North Korea] not to come out for the talks," an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
`hostile US policy'
Nearly a year since the last session of the six-nation talks, North Korea has refused to return to the table, citing a "hostile" US policy. More recently, it has also called for an apology for being labeled one of the world's "outposts of tyranny" by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In a Sunday interview on CNN, Cheney called North Korean leader Kim "one of the world's most irresponsible leaders" who runs a police state and leaves his people in poverty and malnutrition.
US President George W. Bush himself has sounded a more conciliatory tone, referring to Kim this week at a news conference using the title "Mr."
Rice has also said the US recognizes the North as a sovereign nation, and US officials insist they have no intention to attack the communist state.
`hawkish hardliners'
But North Korea said yesterday that the remarks by Cheney, "boss of the hawkish hard-liners, revealed the true colors of this group steering the implementation of the policy of the Bush administration."
The North also leveled a bitter personal attack on Cheney, saying he was "hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood."
Despite the tough talk, the North said it maintains its commitment to ending the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula and seeking a peaceful solution to the current standoff.
"But if the US persists in its wrong behavior, misjudging our magnanimity and patience as a sign of weakness, this will entail more serious consequences," the spokesman said, without any elaboration.
`Rice in control'
This week, Pyongyang's state media also lashed out at Rice in harsh personal terms, implying she was in control of the White House.
Meanwhile, the North also yesterday criticized a US Defense Department decision to halt missions to recover remains of thousands of US soldiers from the Korean War and said it would disband its own search unit.
"In consequence, the US remains buried in Korea can never be recovered but are bound to be reduced to earth with the flow of time," a North Korean army spokesman said, according to KCNA.
Washington said it was halting the missions, which began in 1996, out of concerns for US troops' safety. Pyongyang denied they had ever been at risk and said the Americans had been able to remove remains "without having even a single fingernail hurt."
Also yesterday, the North called demanded the US withdraw 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters recently deployed here on a regular annual training exercise.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS