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N.Korea Seeks Talks With U.S. Over Missile
Bluff failed, huh?
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Wednesday it wants direct talks with the United States over its apparent plans to test-fire a long-range missile, a day after the country issued a bristling statement in which it declared its right to carry out the launch.

North Korea said in comments published Wednesday that its self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles from 1999 no longer applies because it's not in direct dialogue with Washington, suggesting it would hold off on any launch if the U.S. agreed to new talks. "Some say our missile test launch is a violation of the moratorium, but this is not the case," Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, told South Korea's Yonhap news agency in an interview from New York. "North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to develop, deploy, test fire and export a missile," he said. "We are aware of the U.S. concerns about our missile test-launch. So our position is that we should resolve the issue through negotiations."

The North's official Korean Central News Agency also ran a report Wednesday on U.S. officials urging direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang in regard to the standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program.

Posted by: Steve White 2006-06-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=156833