North Korea raised the stakes ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which meets Friday, describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is also attending as a "political imbecile" for criticising its recent missile tests.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, who is in Kuala Lumpur for the forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said North Korea's participation in the six-way talks hung in the balance.

"There have been discussions... that it is necessary for the foreign ministers of the six parties to discuss the early resumption of the six-party talks," Ban told journalists.

"But I am not certain that North Korea's foreign minister is interested in the process."

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun is due to arrive in the Malaysian capital on Thursday.

Ban has expressed hopes that he will have a bilateral meeting with Paek here, but said the schedules have yet to fixed.

"I would stress that North Korea's return to six-way talks is crucial to settling the issue of missile tests," he said. "I have proposed the meeting to my North Korean counterpart, but I have not yet had confirmation from him."

North Korea has boycotted the three-year-old nuclear disarmament talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan since November in protest at US financial sanctions.

Tensions rose after Pyongyang's July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles in defiance of international appeals. UN condemnation and sanctions followed.

Asked if South Korea would try to broker a US-North Korea ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the forum, Ban, who meets with Rice on Friday, said: "The United States has its own position, so we have to wait and see."

The United States has rejected a North Korean offer to hold bilateral negotiations before reviving the six-way talks.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday accused Rice -- who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for test-firing the missiles -- of distorting the facts.

"Obviously, Rice made such an outcry in a bid to justify the US hostile policy to pressurize the DPRK (North Korea) with the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum at hand and draw regional countries into its pressure campaign," KCNA said in a commentary.

It said the North was under threat of attack from "the worst gangsters in the world" after the Bush administration listed it as part of an "axis of evil."

"It was none other than Rice who let loose a spate of such piffle over the launch of a few missiles as part of military training to cope with the US reckless moves for aggression and war," KCNA said.

"This cannot be construed otherwise than an outburst made by a political imbecile."

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Monday the two Koreas would meet on the sidelines of the Asian forum this week but that the North was unwilling to join the six-nation talks.

"I think they feel that the sanctions, the banks, the embargo on the cash transactions is hurting them a lot," he said. "So all these things need to be addressed in order to bring all the parties back to talking."

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News