SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea warned the United States on Friday pressure over its nuclear weapons programs will only aggravate the standoff and could lead to an "explosive crisis."
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper issued the warning, accusing what it called "hardline conservative forces in the U.S." of seeking to increase pressure on Pyongyang in an attempt to disrupt efforts to end the nuclear dispute through dialogue.
"As shown in the previous nuclear crises on the Korean peninsula, pursuing a policy of force would only bring about an explosive crisis, not a resolution of the problem," the paper said in a commentary, carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency.
"Everything achieved through dialogue so far would evaporate into the air," it said, warning of an unspecified "corresponding response if bellicose U.S. forces" continue to put pressure on North Korea.
The paper accused hardline U.S. officials of calling for an end to negotiations with North Korea on the nuclear dispute, raising the North's human rights record and seeking to build a missile-defence system in the region.
The warning came as six-country talks on the nuclear dispute, which made progress in shutting down and disabling the North's nuclear reactor, are now at a deadlock over Pyongyang's refusal to provide a complete list of its nuclear programs.
North Korea says it gave the U.S. a declaration in November as it promised to do by the end of 2007 but Washington says Pyongyang never produced "complete and correct" documentation.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul was not immediately available for comment on the Lunar New Year holiday.
Meanwhile, an aide to U.S. Senator Richard Lugar and two U.S. experts on North Korea plan to visit the North next week to tour its main nuclear reactor and meet with officials, Lugar's spokesman Andy Fisher said.
A focus of the visit by Keith Luse, the Lugar aide, and North Korea specialists Joel Wit and Siegfried Hecker, will be Pyongyang's interest in a U.S. program for dismantling Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction, Fisher said.
Lugar said Wednesday the program, which he co-founded, could be applied to North Korea.
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