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N. Korea's plea for talks with US dismissed
The United States yesterday rejected North Korea's plea for direct talks about a potential missile test, as US President George W. Bush said the communist nation faces further isolation if it goes ahead with a launch.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 June 22, 2006
Seoul: The United States yesterday rejected North Korea's plea for direct talks about a potential missile test, as US President George W. Bush said the communist nation faces further isolation if it goes ahead with a launch.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said threats weren't the way to seek dialogue.
"You don't normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles," he said, "and it's not a way to produce a conversation because if you acquiesce in aberrant behaviour you simply encourage the repetition of it, which we're obviously not going to do."
Earlier yesterday, Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, said in reported remarks that Pyongyang was seeking to resolve the possible missile test concerns through talks. The missile crisis also led former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to cancel a trip next week to the North that could have offered a rare chance for talks.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that the world was "sleepwalking" towards nuclear proliferation and must urgently revive efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
At the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, he said without moves to halt proliferation, more and more states were likely to seek nuclear weapons.
He was speaking against a backdrop of tension over North Korea's nuclear programme and fears that Iran may be trying to develop nuclear arms.
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