N Korea offers talks, says US not cooperating

North Korea said on Friday it was willing to talk to US and International Atomic Energy Agency to defuse a crisis over its nuclear programme...

North Korea said on Friday it was willing to talk to US and International Atomic Energy Agency to defuse a crisis over its nuclear programme. The Communist state’s ambassador to China, Choe Jin-Su, told a news conference in Beijing that North’s decision to reactivate the nuclear programme was an act of self-defence and accused Washington of refusing to discuss the crisis.

‘‘The US alone with Cold War-style thinking is threatening us with nuclear weapons,’’ Ambassador Choe said. ‘‘On this, we were forced to take self defence measures against this threat for the national dignity and right to existence.’’ South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the ambassador as calling for unconditional talks.

Choe said talks had broken off with US about how to safeguard the framework governing its nuclear programme. ‘‘This issue should be negotiated in the future,’’ he said. ‘‘If time permits, we will discuss with IAEA’’. ‘‘While talking about peaceful resolution of the issue, it also rejects dialogue,’’ Choe said of Washington. ‘‘On the other hand, we always tried to seek dialogue.’’ Diplomatic efforts to bring the North into line gathered pace on Friday with S Korea, which held talks with China on Thursday, sending an envoy to Russia for weekend talks.

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‘‘We will ask strongly for the Russian government to take an active role in contacts with N Korea to come to the table for negotiations that will secure a peaceful resolution of the current situation,’’ an official at the S Korean embassy in Moscow said.

The Vienna-based IAEA, whose inspectors were expelled by North Korea will also meet on Monday to discuss the crisis.

A spokesman for South Korea’s President-elect, quoted by Yonhap, said on Friday the South may offer to mediate. ‘‘We are working on a mediation proposal that asks for a concession from both US President George Bush and the North Korean leader,’’ the chairman of Roh Moo-hyun’s transition team, Lim Chae-jung said.