Firm on nuclear ambition

North Korea signalled yesterday that it has no plans to back down in its confrontation with the United States over its nuclear weapons ambitions, one day after talks at the United Nations Security Council failed to produce an agreed statement condemning Pyongyang for resuming nuclear activity.

Both Russia and China blocked American efforts to adopt a common statement censuring North Korea for its actions. State radio in Pyongyang has declared that the fact that the issue had even been discussed in New York amounted to "a prelude to war".

Russia's Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, warned that North Korea was stiffening its resolve in the light of the US-led assault on Iraq. On a visit to Seoul in South Korea yesterday, Ivanov argued that Pyongyang would be encouraged to ignore the UN because it has been weakened by Washington's decision to invade Iraq without Security Council backing.

"I do not rule out that if any decision whatsoever is taken by the UN on this question it will be ignored by Pyongyang, which will refer to other precedents," Ivanov said after talks with South Korean Defence Minister Cho Young-kil. "The turn of events, including the war in Iraq, confirmed that prognosis."

Pyongyang continues to insist, moreover, that it may be the next target of American belligerence and that it therefore is not about to reduce its defence efforts. Washington has denied it has any plans to strike North Korea.

"The Iraqi war launched by the US pre-emptive attack clearly proves that a war can be prevented and the security of the country and the nation can be ensured only when one has physical deterrent force," said KCNA, the North's state-run news agency. The statement did not specifically make reference to nuclear weapons, however.

The latest exchanges came on the day that North Korea officially shrugged off its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it renounced in January. The present crisis started when the US accused North Korea of resuming its nuclear weapons activities in violation of a 1994 agreement between the two countries.

Separately, the US and the European Union were expected formally to accuse the North Korean regime of torture and other abuses at a meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. A joint resolution expressed "deep concern at reports of continued and generalised violations of human rights" in the secretive Stalinist state.

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