North ties past pacts, U.S. review

Pyeongyang threatened Thursday to reconsider all agreements with the United States in light of Washington's nuclear posture review, which listed North Korea as one of seven possible nuclear targets.

"We are compelled to review all agreements with Washington in case the U.S. plan for a nuclear attack on North Korea turns out to be true," a Foreign Ministry spokesman warned in a statement. The 1993 U.S.-North Korea Joint Statement and the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework, in particular, should be re-examined, he emphasized.

It is the first time the communist state has officially alluded to the possibility of terminating the Geneva agreement that freezes Pyeongyang's nuclear development on the condition that the United States not make a preemptive nuclear attack on the North.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday that all options for using nuclear weapons remain open. "We want to make it very clear to nations that you will not threaten the United States or use weapons of mass destruction against us, or our allies or friends."

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun Thursday that a review of the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework is impending.

by Oh Young-hwan