North Korea sets out conditions for US talks

North Korea has issued a detailed statement on its terms for dialogue
with the United States, after weeks of tensions.
The demands from the North's top military body include the withdrawal
of all UN sanctions imposed due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile
tests, and a US pledge not to engage in "nuclear war practice" with
the South. Itsaid denuclearisation of the peninsula should begin with
the withdrawal of US weapons.
Seoul was swift to dismiss the North's conditions as incomprehensible
and illogical. The foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said: "We
again strongly urge North Korea to stop this kind of insistence that
we cannot totally understand and go down the path of a wise choice."
The Japanese news agency Kyodo said the prime minister, Shinzo Abe,
had called for increased pressure on the North.
Leonid Petrov, an expert on the North at the Australian National
University, said of the North's statement: "It's a good sign, they are
prepared to negotiate, but they are demanding an exorbitant and
impermissibly high price … The game will continue."
Pyongyang has issued threats against Seoul and Washington,
withdrawnworkers from an industrial complex it runs with the South and
appears tohave prepared for a possible missile test. It was angered by
the tightening of sanctions over its third nuclear test in February
and joint US-South Korean military drills.
"Dialogue and war cannot co-exist," the North's national defence
commission said in a statement carried by the official news agency
KCNA on Thursday. "If the United States and the puppet South have the
slightest desire to avoid the sledge-hammer blow of our army and the
people … and truly wish dialogue and negotiations, they must make the
resolute decision."
It said the UN resolutions imposing sanctions had been "fabricated
with unjust reasons". "The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula
can begin with the removal of the nuclear war tools dragged in by the
US and it can lead to global nuclear disarmament," it added.
South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, told foreign diplomats on
Wednesday: "We must break the vicious cycle of holding negotiations
and providing assistance if [North Korea] makes threats and
provocations, and again holding negotiations and providing assistance
ifthere are threats and provocations."
In Washington, John Kerry insisted: "I have no desire as secretary of
state and the president has no desire to do the same horse trade or go
down the old road."
Barack Obama earlier sent a similar message, suggesting the North was
likely to engage in more "provocative behaviour" and warning: " You
don't get to bang … your spoon on the table and somehow you get your
way ."
But Kerry has said the US is prepared to reach out if the North shows
it is serious about meeting previous commitments.
Petrov added: "I would predict the status quo will prevail. North
Korea won't be recognised as a nuclear state; the US will continue its
joint military drills; periodically, tensions will escalate, probably
once or twice a year."
The North Koreans may be able to set a higher price than in the past,
he suggested. "It looks like their successful nuclear test [in
February] and [rocket] launches changed the rules of the game."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/north-korea-conditions-us-talks