N. Korea says obtaining nuke 'auspicious event,' economy 2007 goal

BEIJING, Jan. 1 Kyodo

North Korea on Monday listed obtaining a nuclear weapons capability as an ''auspicious'' achievement and cited economic advancement as its 2007 priority in a joint editorial of the country's official press on New Year's Day.

While the annual editorial warned against security threats from the United States, it made no mention of North Korea's ties with Japan or the six-party talks aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear standoff, according to a dispatch by the official Korean Central News Agency.

''Last year, 2006, was adorned as a year of great victory, a year of exciting events,'' said the editorial by three newspapers including the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

''Our access to a nuclear deterrent was an auspicious event in the national history as it meant the realization of our people's centuries-old desire to have national strength no one could dare challenge,'' it said.

North Korea test-fired missiles last July and carried out its first nuclear test last October. Both acts were condemned by the international community, with the latter leading to a U.N. Security Council resolution that paved the way for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Pyongyang.

The editorial called 2007 ''a year of great changes'' and urged people to concentrate on solving economic problems.

''The main task...is to direct primary effort to rapidly improving the standard of the people's living,'' the editorial said.

Analysts say that while more economic activity can be observed in some areas such as Pyongyang, North Korea's economy remains in tatters and that the country continues to depend on foreign food and fuel assistance.

''We should, as in the past, keep up farming as the great foundation of the country and make an epoch-making advance in solving the problem of food for the people,'' the editorial said.

North Korea repeated its complaint about the United States in the editorial, saying Washington's aim is to dominate the entire Korean Peninsula.

''Today the United States is desperately clinging to war moves against the DPRK and the country's reunification'' with South Korea, the editorial said.

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

''Due to the vicious schemes of the United States, peace and security on the Korean peninsula are under grave threat,'' it said.

The editorial made no mention of the six-party talks, which resumed in Beijing last month after a hiatus of more than a year but ended after five days without progress.

While the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have agreed on a statement which commits North Korea to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees, they have yet to agree on specific steps toward achieving that aim.

The editorial also did not mention Japan. Japan and North Korea have bilateral problems including a dispute over Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

The New Year's Day editorial, run annually since 1995, has not referred to Japan since 1997.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning