N.Korea Wants Urgent Atom Talks, UN Tells Yonhap

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N.Korea Wants Urgent Atom Talks, UN Tells Yonhap

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea wants urgently to restart six-party talks on its nuclear programs but is still demanding of its certain conditions be met, a top U.N. official told South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Thursday.

North Korea still agreed with the format of the talks, it quoted Jean Ping, president of the U.N. General Assembly, as saying. Officials told him during a visit that Pyongyang was committed to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, it said.

"North Korea not only agreed to the format of the talks but also believes that the talks should restart urgently," Ping was quoted as saying.

"The only way to restart the talks is to give up the confrontational positions and to create a climate," Ping was quoted as saying when asked about the prospect of restarting the talks. Ping is Gabon's foreign minister.

...

Ping's visit to Pyongyang came after reports surfaced last week that some portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had been removed in the secretive communist state, triggering speculation that his grip on power may be slipping.

North Korea experts said the move was likely Kim's own attempt to project a more rounded image of his leadership.

Rumors circulated in currency and stock markets in Seoul and Tokyo early on Thursday that Kim had been shot dead.

"There have been various rumors about North Korea and some do have an impact on the market, but this time there's no reaction," said a foreign exchange dealer at a bank in Seoul.

A South Korean government official said he had no knowledge of the latest rumors, but said there was no indication of "an abnormal current" in the communist state.

I'm extremely dumb BUT for some reason N Korea reminds me of a middle child trying to get attention. I'm wondering if they want to improve things for themselves and they feel the only way they can do it is thru scaring the shit out of the world.

My only fear is that they don't get the attention fast enough they will launch a bomb.

A middle child with 1.2 million member-strong army and half a dozen nukes and enough artillery batteries along the DMZ to erase Seoul.

They won't use their military force though. They're crazy, but not stupid. They understand M.A.D.

They want money and food aid, not war.

...situation. The United States has never declared peace with N Korea since hostilities of the Korean War ended in 1953 under Dwight Eisenhower. It really is time to shut that conflict down and begin opening up diplomatic relations and talks with N Korea. Otherwise, who knows which country will use a nuclear weapon next! I ask, what is wrong with governments talking, something the Bush administration does very poorly.

and its community let Colin go to Korea and talk and serve tea and talk and talk.