North Korea Tuesday issued a warning of unrestrained war in the event that the United States and its allies impose economic sanctions to force the isolated country to halt work at a nuclear reactor capable of producing atomic weapons.
“Sanctions mean a war,” North Korea declared in a statement released by its official Korean Central News Agency. “The war knows no mercy.”
North Korea also angrily rejected claims that its sales of missiles around the world amount to a threat to peace. “The United States tops the world’s list in producing and selling the weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said.
North Korea’s latest rhetorical assault came a day after the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, offered the country what it characterized as a final chance to allow the return of its inspectors to the reactor site or face the prospect of action from the UN Security Council. The Bush administration has suggested that the matter could be best handled by the Security Council.
South Korean envoys Tuesday continued meetings in Washington with United States and Japanese officials to discuss their response to the crisis. Meanwhile, South Korea’s National security adviser, Yim Sung Joon, was scheduled to meet with his United States counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, and other White House officials.
The Bush administration has refused to negotiate with North Korea, lest it reward what it portrays as “nuclear blackmail.” But South Korea is eager to broker a compromise through dialogue and has deployed envoys around the region to press for one.
Many analysts assume North Korea’s primary motivation in reviving its Yongbyon nuclear reactor is economic: Desperately poor and increasingly isolated, it hopes to generate a crisis that will force the United States to offer concessions, including the resumption of fuel oil shipments that were halted by the Bush administration.
