North Korea demands withdrawal of US troops from South
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-08 15:19

North Korea demanded on Thursday that the United States withdraw its troops from South Korea to prove Washington doesn't plan to attack the North _ a perceived threat the country has used to justify its nuclear weapons program.

The North's demand is not new, but comes just a week before six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions are scheduled to resume. North Korea has repeatedly said it can't dismantle its nuclear program unless the United States drops its "hostile" policy.

On Thursday, the Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, claimed the United States is driving a "fire cloud of war" over the Korean Peninsula by positioning state-of-the-art military hardware in the South and preparing for a pre-emptive nuclear attack against the North.

"If it is true that the U.S. has no intention to invade (North Korea) and has the stance to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula and improve the relations with (North Korea), it should prove it in practice by making a decision for the withdrawal of its troops without delay," the newspaper said in a commentary carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The United States has said repeatedly it has no intention of invading North Korea.

Thursday was what North Korea called the 60th anniversary of U.S. troops' "occupation" of South Korea. Korea was divided after its liberation from Japan's colonial rule at the end of World War II in 1945, with U.S. forces stationed in the South and Soviet forces in the North.

About 32,500 American troops are now stationed in the South under a mutual defense treaty as a deterrent against threats from the North.

But North Korea said a recent U.S.-South Korean military exercise proved Washington was planning an invasion. The 12-day drill that ended this month was largely a computer-simulated war game that U.S. and South Korean officials say is purely defensive.

North Korea cited the exercise as a reason to delay the resumption of the international arms talks in Beijing until next week, two weeks later than previously agreed.

The latest stumbling block at the talks is how to reconcile North Korea's demand that it has a right to a civilian nuclear program with the U.S. position that it shouldn't be allowed any nuclear program at all because of its record of broken promises.

U.S. Reps. Tom Lantos and James Leach, who returned to Washington this week from a trip to the North, said they expressed impatience to officials there about their complaints of perceived hostility, including the recent military exercise and the appointment of an American envoy on human rights for North Korea.

"There is no hostility on the part of the United States," Rep. Tom Lantos said Wednesday. "We are getting tired of listening to these old, tired and meaningless cliches, and they have to move on."

The lawmakers also warned the North that the United States, focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is running out of patience with North Korea's continued refusal to scrap its nuclear weapons.

"Both the American people and the Congress will be singularly impatient with diplomatic dilatory tactics from North Korea" when talks resume, Lantos said. "If an agreement can be reached on principles, the climate will begin to change; it will become more constructive and more positive."

The nuclear row broke out in late 2002 after U.S. officials said the North admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of an earlier deal to abandon its weapons ambitions. The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.