North Korea says will hold talks, but not with Bolton
( 2003-08-03 10:53) (Agencies)
North Korea said Sunday there
was no change in its stand on holding six-way talks to resolve its nuclear
ambitions, but would not consider U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton as an
official for any dialogue.
Bolton earlier this week referred to life in North Korea as a "hellish
nightmare," where North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lived like royalty while
keeping hundreds of thousands of his people in prison camps and millions more
mired in poverty.
"There is no change in our stand on holding the six-party talks including the
bilateral talks between the DPRK and the U.S. for the peaceful settlement of the
nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted
Pyongyang's foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
DPRK is an acronym for North Korea.
"On the basis of a serious analysis of Bolton's outcries in the light of his
political vulgarity and psychopathological condition, as they are quite
different from the recent remarks of the U.S. president, we have decided not to
consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer nor to deal
with him," the spokesman said.
North Korea and the United States said Friday they had agreed to hold six-way
talks on the nuclear standoff. China, Japan, Russia and South Korea will also
attend.
The crisis began last October when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to
pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program.
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