N Korea 'brinkmanship' irks press

Regional papers have been quick to condemn Pyongyang's statement that it is "indefinitely" abandoning multi-party talks on its nuclear programme, and that it already has nuclear weapons.

Comment in South Korea warns that the move could court disaster.

Japanese reaction is calmer, with one paper implying the threat is just a bluff.

Russian and Chinese papers point out that both North Korea and Iran are proving more than Washington can handle.

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We shall have to watch closely whether that is a real admission or simply typical of the Stalinist country's brinkmanship in attempting to ratchet up tension with the US.

While North Korea appears unafraid of head-on confrontation with the international community, the US response is also guaranteed to change.

With it, the threat grows that the entire Korean Peninsula will be sucked into a vortex... North Korea must awaken from the self-induced trance where it believes it can gain something only when it takes on the international community head-on.

South Korea's Choson Ilbo

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North Korea has held out an ominous card. The announcement... puts a damper on the possibility of resolving the North's nuclear issue through dialogue.

This is nothing but a claim to be treated as a "nuclear power" by the international community, which may spell disaster for the Korean peninsula...

Once the North has officially declared itself as a nuclear power, a failure to resume talks will only lead to sanctions such as those being referred to the UN Security Council. It must not forget that there is no single neighbouring country, including China, that will tolerate its nuclear armaments.

South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo

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The tirade from North Korea may be regarded as another attempt to wring concessions in exchange for its return to the six-party talks. Its threat to suspend participation in the talks for an indefinite period should be seen as designed to accomplish that goal.

Progress - or a lack of it - in the six-party talks hinges on whether North Korea will decide to scrap its nuclear development programme in its entirety, including its uranium enrichment programme.

North Korea should know better than to play for time. It should dismantle its nuclear programme immediately.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun

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North Korea's threat is nonsense, and Japan should stay cool and deal with the issues of abduction, nuclear weapons development and missiles, based on a policy of dialogue and pressure.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun

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Since the US military already does not dare attack Iran, it will not have the guts to provoke North Korea... In a situation when the US military cannot pull out of Iraq, the White House is basically incapable of dealing with any new military conflict which may be caused by North Korea and Iran.

China's Renmin Wang

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From North Korea indefinitely suspending participation in the six-party talks and declaring that it has nuclear weapons, to negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue being stuck in deadlock and Iran declaring it will not abandon its nuclear programme, as well as the US stating in a hard-line manner that it will not accept a delay by Iran, the beginning of 2005, which was originally supposed to ease the nuclear weapons dispute, has suddenly intensified, and a new nuclear crisis is brewing.

China's Qingnian Bao

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If one is to look at the situation with the "axis of evil" from this angle it becomes clear why, without any prior agreement, North Korea and Iran have both treated the USA to a carnival of "nuclear disobedience".

As far as North Korea and Iran are concerned, there is a red line which the USA and their allies are unlikely to risk crossing. Pyongyang and Tehran understand this only too well. And from time and time, for the sake of self-preservation, they remind George Bush of the price.

Russia's Kommersant

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Russia, which borders on North Korea, is interested in seeing this crisis solved more than many others - and can help this matter a lot by exerting its influence on North Korea.

However, in order to ensure success, one has to exert influence on the USA too. Moscow can only do that together with other interested parties: as part of a bloc of countries - a kind of a "coalition of goodwill". This approach failed in the case of Iraq, but Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction.

Russia's Vedomosti

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