Sept. 29, 2004
North Korea's has claimed the danger of war on the Korean peninsula is "snowballing".
The chief delegate to the United Nations General Assembly accused the US of destroying the basis for negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
In a speech to the United Nations, Choe Su Hon, head of the the North Korean delegation, also held out the possibility that the six-party talks could be resumed if Washington agreed to reward Pyongyang for freezing its nuclear activities.
He also asked questions about South Korea's atomic experiments.
Mr Choe dismissed as "only guessing and rumour" signs that Pyongyang may be preparing a ballistic missile test.
He told a rare press conference North Korea had last tested a missile in 1998 and said it was obvious "we have the capability to produce various kinds of missiles...We don't have anything to hide on that."
North and South Korea have been divided since the Korean War ended in 1953 and Choe said "the danger of war is snowballing owing to the US extreme moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and threats of preemptive strikes against it."
North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Mr Choe repeated claims the North had weaponized the fuel from 8,000 reprocessed spent fuel rods, which experts say could boost its nuclear cache from one or two bombs to eight bombs.
He charged that South Korea could not have carried out recently revealed unauthorised nuclear experiments in 1982 and 2000 without US assistance and said this must be clarified.
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are trying to persuade the North to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid.
The latest in a series of six-way talks had been planned for this month, but North Korea said last month talks with the United States were pointless.
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