North Korea raised the stakes ahead of Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum, describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due to attend, as a "political imbecile" for criticising its recent missile tests.

Despite doubts that North Korea would agree to the meeting, China said that informal talks had been tentatively scheduled for Friday, although the plans had not yet been finalised.

"The time currently being planned is the afternoon of the 28th, but it is still under negotiation," Chinese deputy foreign minister Wu Dawei told reporters after arriving in Malaysia.

"At the moment, all sides are still making efforts but whether it will happen or not, nobody can tell yet," he said.

"I hope it will happen. It does not necessarily have to be six-party talks -- it can be a meeting between six foreign ministers," he said, referring to the participants -- the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

South Korea also said Tuesday that discussions were under way to bring together the six foreign ministers, who are all due to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, but that North Korea's participation hung in the balance.

"There have been discussions... that it is necessary for the foreign ministers of the six parties to discuss the early resumption of the six-party talks," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon told journalists.

"But I am not certain that North Korea's foreign minister is interested in the process."

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun is due to arrive in the Malaysian capital on Thursday. Ban said he is keen to have a bilateral meeting with Paek, but that the schedules have yet to be arranged.

"I would stress that North Korea's return to six-way talks is crucial to settling the issue of missile tests," he said. "I have proposed the meeting to my North Korean counterpart, but I have not yet had confirmation from him."

The United States and South Korea have shown interest in holding five-way talks if the North refused to join, but Wu reiterated China's opposition to meeting without Pyongyang.

"My feeling is, it is best not to do so, it will lead the six-party talks into more difficulties," he said.

But Top US envoy on North Korea Christopher Hill said the five countries should get "together to talk about the way ahead" if North Korea refused to take part in Malaysia.

"We don't want to have North Korea determining whether the rest of us meet and talk about this," he told reporters after arriving at Kuala Lumpur airport late Tuesday.

Hill said a meeting between the US and North Korea here was unlikely if it remained unwilling to restart six-nation talks.

"We are skeptical about having a bilat (bilateral meeting) with countries that are not participating (in six-nation talks). And the DPRK have been boycotting the six-party (talks)," he said referring to the country by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Let's see if they can have some kind of (six-nation) meeting here."

North Korea has boycotted the three-year-old nuclear disarmament talks since November in protest at US financial sanctions.

Tensions rose after Pyongyang's July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles in defiance of international appeals. UN condemnation and sanctions followed.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday accused Rice -- who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for launching the missiles -- of distorting the facts.

"Obviously, Rice made such an outcry in a bid to justify the US hostile policy to pressurize the DPRK with the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum at hand and draw regional countries into its pressure campaign," KCNA said in a commentary.

It said the North was under threat of attack from "the worst gangsters in the world" after the Bush administration listed it as part of an "axis of evil."

"It was none other than Rice who let loose a spate of such piffle over the launch of a few missiles as part of military training to cope with the US reckless moves for aggression and war," KCNA said.

"This cannot be construed otherwise than an outburst made by a political imbecile."

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News