North Korea threatened Monday, May 5, to scuttle all nuclear talks unless the United States responds positively to Pyongyang's offer to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic and diplomatic payoffs. North Korea also accused Washington of making efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis "more complicated" by again including the Stalinist state on a list of countries suspected of sponsoring terrorism. "If the U.S. does not positively respond to the DPRK's (North Korea's) bold proposal, it will be held accountable for scuttling all efforts for dialogue and seriously straining the situation," the ruling Workers Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said. It denounced Washington for ignoring the North's proposal, presented at talks in Beijing last month meant to defuse the six-month-old nuclear crisis.
| Truculence is diplomacy by other means, I guess... |
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