SEOUL, March 29 (UPI) -- North Korea said Saturday it would not bow to international pressure on its nuclear activities, drawing lessons from the ongoing U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Insisting Iraq has invited its "miserable fate" by opening its weapons facilities to U.N. inspectors, the defiant communist state said it would not make any concession to the United States.
"It is clear that the destiny of Iraq is at stake due to its concession and compromise," said Rodong Sinmun, the organ of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.
Labeled by Washington as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran, North Korea has said it would be next target of a U.S. military action after the present war with Iraq. It has criticized Washington for inciting the North's nuclear dispute to create "an excuse for invasion."
"The DPRK (North Korea) would have already met the same miserable fate as Iraq's had it compromised its revolutionary principle and accepted the demand raised by the imperialists and its followers for 'nuclear inspection' and disarmament," Rodong Sinmun said.
The daily said North Korea would stick to its "army-based policy" as the "No. 1 lifeline" and a guarantee for protecting its sovereignty. "The DPRK will increase its self-defensive capability and fully demonstrate its might under the uplifted banner of the army-based policy," it said.
Rodong Sinmun also accused South Korea of staging military exercises near the heavily armed border as an "intolerable provocation." "It is clear that the South Korean military is opting for a war against the North, going against the trend of the era of independent reunification," it said.
Pyongyang has said U.S.-South Korean military exercises this month were a "test nuclear war" that showed the United States was ready to attack North Korea after the war in Iraq. "In case the U.S. imperialists' invasion of Iraq is 'successful', they will wage a new war of aggression on the Korean peninsula," Rodong Sinmun said.
In Seoul, defense chiefs from Japan and South Korea met to discuss tensions rising on the peninsula over North Korea's suspected nuclear ambitions.
Tensions further went up after Japan's launch of spy satellites Friday to monitor the North's missile and nuclear weapons programs, which triggered Pyongyang's angry response with a warning of "a news arms race" in the region.
In their talks Saturday, Japanese Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba and South Korea's Defense Minister Cho Young-kil agreed to seek "a unified front" to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully, officials said.
The Ishiba-Cho meeting marked the first top-level military contact between the two countries since last November. The Japanese and South Korean governments have expressed support for the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq. Ishiba returns to Japan Sunday.
In Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan has asked Washington to be "more positive and flexible" in order to draw North Korea into dialogue to discuss ending the months-old nuclear standoff.
Yoon told journalists that he had called for Secretary of State Colin Powell to take a different approach to North Korea from Iraq and seek a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis. Yoon will visit Tokyo Sunday on his way home.
The South Korean government announced that President Roh Moo-hyun would travel to Washington in May for talks with President George W. Bush. Ahead of the Washington summit, Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Seoul "within next month," officials said.
