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UNITED NATIONS-North Korea wants to press ahead with denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but is strengthening its "self-defensive capability" in the face of hostile U.S. policy, a North Korean official said on Saturday.The comments came as Chris Hill, the U.S. nuclear envoy for North Korea, set plans to visit Pyongyang in coming days in a bid to salvage crumbling six-party denuclearization talks, a senior U.S. official said.The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier this week that Pyongyang was expelling agency monitors from its Soviet-era nuclear plant that produces plutonium and plans to start reactivating it next week, rolling back a disarmament-for-aid deal.That prompted South Korea's foreign minister to say on Friday that international talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions could be heading for a breakdown.The U.S. official said Hill had consultations in New York with other nations involved in nuclear talks with North Korea and they decided it would be a good idea for him to go to Pyongyang.The State Department refused to confirm Hill was going to Pyongyang but said he was traveling to Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Monday.North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon told the U.N. General Assembly that there was still a possibility of keeping the so-called six-party talks on track, although he made clear Pyongyang felt it was being slighted."(North Korea) will continue to make every sincere effort toward the denuclearization of the whole Korean peninsula, but will not be indifferent to an attempt to offend our dignity and self-respect, and violate its sovereignty," he said.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
