NewsMax Wires
Tuesday, June 01, 2004

The published commentary came as regional powers are trying to arrange a third round of talks on defusing the standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The United States, North Korea and four other nations agreed to meet before July, but no date has yet been set.

At issue are Washington's charges that North Korea is running a secret enriched uranium-based nuclear weapons program besides the plutonium-based one the communist nation has acknowledged.

The dispute flared in October 2002, when the United States said North Korea admitted operating the uranium program in violation of international agreements. North Korea has publicly denied this, and the nuclear talks have since bogged down, in part, over the question of how to handle the uranium allegations.

On Monday, North Korea accused the United States of fabricating the uranium program as a way of fanning concern about weapons of mass destruction and winning public support for an invasion.

"The Bush war forces are going to apply what it used in Iraq to the DPRK," said North Korea's official KCNA news agency. "Having worked out a plan to launch a new war on the Korean peninsula in the wake of that in Iraq, the U.S. is building up in advance public opinion about fictitious development of 'enriched uranium' in the DPRK."

DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

Eradicating weapons of mass destruction was cited by the Bush administration as a primary reason for invading Iraq. No such weapons have been found, despite extensive searches.

Before the war, Bush had lumped Iraq together with North Korea and Iran as members of his "Axis of Evil."

"The U.S. does not hesitate to wantonly violate the sovereignty of other countries by setting afloat sheer lies for its own selfish interests," the KNCA report said.

The United States believes North Korea already has one or two atomic weapons and enough raw material to make several more on short order.

North Korea says it is willing to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid. But Washington demands that the alleged uranium program be included and says assistance won't come until the North has committed to "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of all nuclear development.

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