U.S. 'Out of Date,' North's Aide Says

HAVANA － A high-ranking North Korean official for the first time publicly expressed anger at the Bush administration at an international forum here.

Kim Yong-dae, vice president of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly Presidum, said that his country will respond to the United States after Washington's policy emerges in the first half of the year.

"The Bush administration's hard-line policy toward North Korea is out of date and we are very displeased about it," Mr. Kim said in a meeting with Korean reporters. Mr. Kim is in Havana to take part in the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Asked whether inter-Korean relations, including the planned visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, can change in line with the U.S. administration's policy toward the North, Mr. Kim only replied, "Our position has been delivered to former Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu." Mr. Park, however, said Monday that he knows nothing of such a position.

Since President George W. Bush expressed "some skepticism" about North Korea and its leader last month, saying that the United States has no plans to immediately open talks with the Communist state, North Korea has stepped up its anti-U.S. rhetoric through its media.

However, this is the first time that a high-ranking official has made public criticism of the United States.

Since last month's summit, North Korea has canceled cabinet-level talks with the South, and also withdrew from an agreement to field a joint team for this month's world table tennis tournament.

South Korean senior government officials said that Seoul will not rush the North to come to the negotiating table, as inter-Korean talks will naturally resume when Washington's policy toward the North emerges. "Since the United States said it will draw up its North Korean policy within the first half of this year, we will decide on our actions after closely watching it," one official said.

Concerning the earlier proposal by Lee Man-sup, South Korea's national assembly speaker, to hold inter-Korean parliament talks, Mr. Kim said, "What could there be possibly to say at this moment?"

by Ju Ki-jung