N. Korea Declaration Draws World Concern

Satellite image from February 2003 shows North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex. In recent years, North Korea has used progressively more specific language to describe the development of a "nuclear deterrent." (Space Imaging Asia Via AP)

For two years, North Korea played along with its economic and political patron, participating in three rounds of talks in Beijing and refraining from declaring itself a nuclear power. By defying China now, analysts say, North Korea appears to be betting that the Chinese leadership has little choice but to tolerate its escalating nuclear brinkmanship with the United States.

Asian diplomats had hoped for a resumption of the six-party talks, which were suspended last year after North Korea appeared to be awaiting the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Bush, who has referred to North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," refrained from such rhetoric during his State of the Union address last week, emphasizing the need for international cooperation to solve the crisis.

But the North Korean statement objected to Rice's use of the term "outpost of tyranny" during her Senate confirmation hearings last month, saying "the official political stance of the U.S. contained no word showing any willingness to coexist."

Analysts had considered a nuclear declaration by the North to be a bargaining chip it had withheld in the multilateral talks. Now that the Bush administration is in its second term, the statement indicates that the secretive government no longer has anything to lose, the analysts said.

"They are using this to try to force the U.S. to deal with them now as a nuclear-possessing country, and to escalate their demands," said Pyong Jin Il, a Tokyo-based North Korea expert and editor of the Korea Report. "They are going to try to force the U.S. to deal with it on an equal stand as China, Russia, India and Pakistan. They are asking the U.S. and the rest of the world to negotiate with them as a nuclear power."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, meeting with NATO ministers in Nice, in the south of France, said there was call for concern "if you believe them that they have weapons."

"Given they're a dictatorial regime and the repression of their own people, one has to worry about weapons of that power in the hands of leadership of that nature," Rumsfeld said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at the same meeting that North Korea's withdrawal from the six-party talks "would be unsuitable."

South Korea said that the North's decision to stay away from talks was "seriously regrettable." Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu Hyung said, "We again declare our stance that we will never tolerate North Korea possessing nuclear weapons."

In Beijing, the government's initial reaction to the North Korean declaration was cautious.

"We have taken note of the relevant report, and are monitoring the development of the situation," Kong Quan, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement. "We consistently advocate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula. We hope the six-party talks will continue."

Officials in Tokyo, as in Washington, have been looking to China to pressure the North. China provides as much as 80 percent of North Korea's energy and has on occasion cut off oil supplies to force it into submission.

The standoff with North Korea began after what U.S. officials have said was the North's private admission in October 2002 of operating a uranium enrichment program, a violation of its agreement with the Clinton administration to abandon nuclear weapons programs. This touched off a tense two years in which North Korea, denying that it had an enrichment program, expelled weapons inspectors and announced the reprocessing of its spent plutonium rods.

Analysts say that the Pyongyang government, which is seeking billions of dollars in energy, economic aid and loans in return for giving up its nuclear ambitions, may be calculating that the current mood will move the Bush administration toward something it has been loath to do: giving in to the demands of other parties in the talks, chiefly China and South Korea, to pursue a softer line with North Korea.

"The North Koreans are saying they will 'indefinitely postpone,' not cancel, the six-party talks, and that's a key difference," said Hajime Izumi, an expert on North Korea at Japan's University of Shizuoka. "They're not walking away, they're just looking for a way to find a position of strength."

Pan reported from Beijing. Staff writers Josh White in Nice and Robin Wright in Luxembourg, special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo and researcher Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.