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.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
Australia’s opposition party yesterday withdrew election promises to prevent public servants from working from home and to slash more than one in five federal public-sector jobs. Opposition leader Peter Dutton announced his conservative Liberal Party had dropped its pledge that public servants would be required to work in their offices five days a week except in exceptional circumstances. “I think we made a mistake in relation to this policy,” Dutton told Nine Network television. “I think it’s important that we say that and recognize it, and our intention was to make sure that where taxpayers are working hard and their money is
RSS