Nuclear watchdog gives defiant North Korea more time

North Korea remained defiant about its need for a "self-defensive military capability" as the UN nuclear watchdog decided yesterday to give the reclusive communist regime a second chance to abandon its secret weapons programme.

North Korea also dismissed claims by Washington that it had made progress in acquiring nuclear capability and posed a missile threat.

"This goes to clearly prove that the US intends to launch military intervention," the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding that it was "quite right" that the country had "increased its self-defensive military capability to cope with the US".

The reaction came as South Korean envoys stepped up efforts to find a peaceful end to the North Korean nuclear dispute by trying to persuade the Washington to start talks with the communist state.

Hours earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency's chief warned North Korea that it would turn the case over to the UN Security Council if it does not abandon its weapons programme and re-admit inspectors it expelled last month. The warning came after the nuclear watchdog approved a resolution giving the North another chance to back off from its nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, it was reported that South Korea's possible compromise plan would require North Korea to abandon its uranium-based nuclear programme, at which point the US would resume fuel oil shipments suspended in December. If America resumes the shipments, North Korea would have no justification for reactivating its second, plutonium-based nuclear programme.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, whose single five-year term ends in February, has sought to engage the communist North under his "sunshine" policy. Critics argue that he was duped by North Korea, which was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. Kim's successor, Roh Moo-hyun, has promised to continue the policy of the dialogue.

South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung, meanwhile, headed home after winning a promise from Russiato press North Korea over its nuclear programme. (AP)