North Korea Holds Hard Line

As the United States appeared to soften its stance, North Korea sharpened its rhetoric Wednesday, warning of a risk of nuclear war and calling for help from South Korea to prevent it.

"It is plain to everyone that if a nuclear war breaks out in Korea, it will bring catastrophic disasters to the Koreans in both parts of Korea," the North's official news agency, KCNA, said in a commentary Wednesday.

The commentary warned of an "increasing danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula" because of the United States, and it urged the two Koreas to "pool their efforts and condemn and frustrate the U.S. nuclear policy for aggression."

The North's rhetoric came despite a statement by the Bush administration Tuesday that it was open to dialogue over North Korea's restarted nuclear program.

The offer to talk is unconditional, but the administration is standing by its position that North Korea must give up its weapons programs.

North Korea alarmed the world by taking steps in December to reactivate nuclear facilities at Yongbyon that were frozen under a deal with the United States in 1994.

That followed a revelation in October that North Korea had started a new uranium-enrichment program, which led the United States and its allies to cut off fuel shipments to the North. North Korea says the fuel cutoff means it must resume its earlier, plutonium-based nuclear program to provide energy for civilian use.

Washington says the plant could instead be used to produce material for nuclear bombs.

North Korea has since expelled U.N. monitors and threatened to quit the global nuclear arms control treaty. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency this week decided to give the North "one more chance" to honor international safeguards obligations.

North Korea accuses Washington of using the North's recent moves as an excuse for a pre-emptive nuclear attack. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading.

The American position emerged from two days of consultations in Washington with Japan and South Korea.

"If the North Koreans are prepared to reverse course and stop their aggressive pursuit of greater nuclear weapons capabilities, they know how to reach members of the international community," said Sean McCormack, spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council. "We are prepared to listen."

It was unclear how substantial a shift the administration had taken. Secretary of State Colin Powell said repeatedly on Dec. 29 that the U.S. was willing to talk to North Korea, just not to negotiate new inducements, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller. That remained the American position Wednesday.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik said the participants in the talks agreed that North Korea should take the first step by giving up its nuclear weapons program. "Only after this can we imagine serious discussions or dialogue taking place," Lee said.

The offer of dialogue was backed by Mr. Bush, who again offered assurances in a Chicago speech that "we have no aggressive intentions, no argument with the North Korean people. We're interested in peace in the Korean peninsula."

The joint statement in Washington said Japan's and South Korea's dialogues with North Korea "serve as important channels to resolve issues of bilateral concern."

There was no mention in the statement of a South Korean proposal that Washington assure North Korea's security in exchange for freezing the nuclear weapons program.

Under a New Year's policy push, the communist state has made a top priority of urging more cooperation with South Korea in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between Seoul and its major ally, the United States.

South Korea Wednesday wrote off the North's attempts to divide the allies as propaganda. But it also welcomed an apparent softening in Washington.

In South Korea, about 400 military veterans and citizens at a pro-U.S. rally on Wednesday burned an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il clinging to a missile.

About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against communist North Korea.