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News :: International Relations |
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N Korea Calls Rumsfeld 'psychopath' |
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by Latie
(No verified email address) |
30 Sep 2003
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North Korea has launched a scathing attack on US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling him a "dictatorial psychopath". |
The official KCNA news agency commentary went on to call him a "politically illiterate old man" who was "cursed and hated worldwide" because of his belief that only the US can dispense international justice.
The condemnation, outspoken even for the official news agency, followed Mr Rumsfeld's own negative comments about North Korea in a recent speech to US and South Korean business leaders. He said: "While the situation in North Korea sometimes looks bleak, I'm convinced that one day freedom will come to the people and light up that oppressed land with hope and promise."
War of words
Mr Rumsfeld said that he had a night-time satellite picture of the divided peninsula in his office that showed the North almost entirely in darkness and the South lit up. North Korea and the United States are at loggerheads over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. On Saturday US President George W Bush, following talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin, again called on Pyongyang to end its plans for nuclear weapons.
The news agency said it was easy to asses the political line of the Bush administration "which includes such a dangerous international dictator" as Mr Rumsfeld.
It said Mr Rumsfeld was "not likely at all that he would speak truth as he is obsessed with wantonly harassing peace and security in different parts of the world and igniting wars". Tensions have been high since the US and North Korea became engaged in a war of words over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions last October. Washington has characterised North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" and has said North Korea has admitted to possessing at least one nuclear bomb. North Korea has called for economic aid and a non-aggression pact with America in return for surrendering its nuclear ambitions, but Washington has consistently refused.
But Mr Rumsfeld is not the first to prompt the wrath of the news agency. In August, US State Department official John Bolton was described as "human scum" for calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il a tyrannical dictator.
© BBC MMIII
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3145966.stm
add your comments
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by this thing here Monday September 29, 2003 at 06:58 AM
usually, this kind of language coming from north korea is nothing new. but, unfortunately for north korea, AND america, the word "psychopath" may be a little closer to the truth than we would hope.
rumsfeld, bolton, perle, wolfowitz, william crystol, the AEI, weekly standard, national review neo-conservative circle of influence, in fact anyone who follows the straussian philosophy, which is itself a psychopathic philosophy about government power (it's o.k. to lie and subvert democracy to acheive political objectives), could be considered psychopathic. of course, there's one guy in particular i wouldn't be surprised to find is a real, clinically diagnosed psychopath: richard perle.
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N. Korea Not Talking With U.S. Readies Nuclear Sabre |
by Carol
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
30 Sep 2003
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SEOUL/NEW YORK - North Korea said on Tuesday it was not interested in further talks about its nuclear program and was beefing up its nuclear deterrent force to repel a possible pre-emptive attack by the United States.
Pyongyang's comments came as U.S., Japanese and South Korean diplomats met in Tokyo to discuss strategy to deal with North Korea's declared nuclear deterrent, including how to reassure the communist state about its security concerns.
In Vienna, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog called on North Korea to return to the negotiating table, insisting that dialogue was the only way to resolve the nuclear crisis.
A senior South Korean official said he believed the North was ready to continue the six-party talks despite its public statements, which he said were typical of its tactics to gain more leverage.
North Korea has been under pressure to return to the negotiating table ever since last month's talks in Beijing between the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan ended with no concrete outcome.
But North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said Pyongyang had lost interest in the talks because of Washington's attitude and said both sides should disarm simultaneously.
"Under the present circumstances, in which the DPRK and the United States are leveling guns at each other, asking the other party to put down the guns first does not make any sense," Choe said, using the initials for the north's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
'DISCARD INTEREST' IN TALKS
Known for bluster and raising the stakes before compromising, North Korea said Washington was creating the false impression it wanted to solve the crisis and offer a new proposal.
"This compels the DPRK to discard any interests or expectation for the talks," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "As already clarified, the DPRK has not made any promise regarding the next round of the six-way talks."
The North was taking "practical measures to steadily beef up the nuclear deterrent force as a just, self-defensive means to repel the U.S. nuclear pre-emptive attack," he said.
"Quite contrary to the rumor, the U.S. authorities have not yet manifested its will to make a switchover in its policy toward the DPRK and are still insisting on their assertion that the DPRK should scrap its nuclear program first."
Choe told the United Nations, "We just want both sides to drop guns simultaneously and co-exist peacefully. Simultaneous action is a realistic way for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, and any opposition to it is tantamount to a refusal to denuclearize."
The North Korea crisis erupted in October 2002, when the U.S. said Pyongyang had admitted to enriching uranium for use in atomic weapons.
North Korea later expelled the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors, severed relations with the agency and announced it was withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global pact aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons.
TOKYO TALKS YIELD LITTLE
The Tokyo talks were the first among senior diplomats from Washington and its two key Asian allies since the Beijing meeting. Among the issues was the question of how to address North Korea's security concerns.
Washington wants North Korea to agree to a verifiable and irreversible end to its nuclear arms programs. Pyongyang wants a firm assurance the United States will not attack or invade.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck. Kelly offered little comment about the prospects for another round of six-country talks, saying only: "We don't know."
But South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun told the Korea Society in New York that he believed the North was ready to continue talks.
"If one makes a thorough analysis of North Korean intentions ... it is evident that North Korea is paradoxically ready to continue the dialogue," he said. "Some can interpret the North Korean reaction as its typical tactic to ratchet up its bargaining chip to gain more leverage in future negotiations."
He said intelligence agencies in Seoul and Washington had concluded that the possibility of North Korea formally declaring itself a nuclear arms state and conducting nuclear and missile tests was low.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged all six parties to find a way to reopen dialogue. "Dialogue is the only way to resolve the North Korea crisis," he told reporters in Vienna. "If it is not done through dialogue, I don't see how it is going to be resolved."
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