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Ready for conflict, concord: N. Korea

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: East Asia was in the grip of growing tensions on Thursday with North Korea blowing hot and cold in a strategy to counter the moves at the United Nations to censure it and, perhaps, impose sanctions for having "tested" a nuclear weapon on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said it was "ready for both dialogue and confrontation." Though Pyongyang did not explicitly outlining its choice interlocutor(s) for such a "dialogue," it was categorical about the likely targets of its "confrontation." They are the United States and Japan.

Pyongyang has already threatened to view any escalation in the pressure tactics by the United States as "a declaration of war" against it.

In a warning to Japan on Thursday, Pyongyang emphasised its intention to take "strong counter-measures" against Tokyo, which had announced sanctions of its own against the DPRK without waiting for any collective move by the U.N. Security Council. Japan, for its part, stayed the course of its internal procedures to formalise its unilateral sanctions.

However, regional diplomats said Pyongyang was certainly eager, under its two-track approach, to engage the U.S. in the proposed "dialogue" on political terms being set by the DRPK leader Kim Jong-il.

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