KOREA: A US official has described North Korea as an evil regime on the dark side of a dangerous frontier, but said Washington was ready to talk to Pyongyang and help with reforms if the North reinvented itself.
Also in Seoul yesterday, South and North Koreans struggled to find a way to breach the Demilitarised Zone - the fortified border that divides the peninsula - by rebuilding rail and road links cut for half a century.
The contrast in style and substance was partly coincidental, but underscored diplomacy on the peninsula is once again in a critical phase, this time with the stakes higher than for years.
The North-South talks at a Seoul hotel were delayed yesterday while officials tried to narrow differences that included when the North's military would agree to talk about how to rebuild transport links in the border zone safely.
At another branch of the same hotel chain in Seoul, US Under-secretary of State Mr John Bolton branded North Korea the world's foremost peddler of ballistic missile technology and said the communist state needed drastic reforms to survive.
"Some 30 km from where I stand lies one of the most dangerous places on earth - the Demilitarised Zone," Mr Bolton told South Koreans in a speech that carried particular weight as he is the top US arms negotiator and widely seen as a "hawk".
"The brave forces of our two countries stand ready to defend against an evil regime that is armed to the teeth," he said.
Mr Bolton said President Bush's description of North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran was factually correct, rather than a mere rhetorical flourish. - (Reuters)