NKs Harsh Rhetoric Not Helpful: US

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's harsh statements in recent days, although not directly related to denuclearization talks, are "not helpful," the U.S. State Department said Monday.

"I don't think that some of the rhetoric that we've seen is necessarily helpful," department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Through various media outlets, North Korea has bashed the new conservative government in South Korea and accused the U.S. of not implementing the six-nation denuclearization deal.

On Sunday, Pyongyang warned it will turn South Korea into "ashes" if it makes any move to attack the North. The threat was in reaction to comments by Seoul's head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told parliament that his government would strike Pyongyang's suspected nuclear sites should North Korea try to attack the South with atomic weapons.

"Is it directly related to six-party talks and the six-party process? No," Casey said about the North's statements. "But is it helpful? Certainly I don't think so."

South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of what is known as the six-party talks, whose goal is to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free by dismantling Pyongyang's atomic arsenal. The process has been stalled by the North's delay in providing a declaration revealing its nuclear stockpile and any proliferation activities. The deadline for the declaration was Dec. 31.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, elected from a conservative base, has differentiated himself from his predecessors by promising to link assistance to the North with progress in denuclearization. North Korea has been relatively silent since Lee's inauguration in February, but from last week has lashed out at Seoul, ordering South Korean officials at Kaesong, an inter-Korean industrial complex, to leave. Soon afterwards, Pyongyang test-launched short-range missiles.

A statement accused Washington of not implementing actions it pledged in the six-party deals, mainly removing Pyongyang from the State Department's list of terrorism-sponsoring states.

Top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, met in Geneva earlier this month, but failed to achieve a breakthrough in the deadlock.

As he headed out to Seoul on Monday to start his Asia swing, Hill said the differences are "getting smaller."

"I think they are still very interested in trying to get through the declaration," he said, but added, "I think tempers are getting shorter. Patience is certainly getting frayed."

He said he has no plans to meet with the North Koreans during his nine-day trip to Asia.

"When and if we meet, whenever it comes, it has to be a meeting in which we really can finally resolve it," said Hill.

Casey, speaking about contacts after the Geneva meeting, said, "I know there have been some sort of smaller kind of communications passed back through the Chinese."

"For us and everyone else, the focus ought to be on moving forward, getting a full and complete declaration," the spokesman said. (Yonhap)