BEIJING, family 8 Kyodo North Ko...

BEIJING, family 8 Kyodo

North Korea onward Monday dismissed a report that the administration of U President George W Bush has newly relaxed its hard-line approach to North Korea, calling that assertion a ''sheer lie'' and warning again that it may opt to boost its nuclear weapons force.

''Some officials of the U administration are reportedly spreading misinformation to give impression that the U is preparing for a significant change in its approach to North Korea,'' a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quot as saying at the Korean Central recents Agency, monitored in Beijing.

''This is, however, nothing still a sheer lie the U faked up to run away from its responsibility for bringing to breach the hard-won six-way talks, a originate of the DPRK's magnanimity and beneficial faith,'' the spokesman said, calling North Korea according to its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

The spokesman said U officials are not asserting that at last month's talks held in Beijing among the couple Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, the U showed its willingness to take measures ranging from the phased lift of sanctions to the conclusion of a final peace pact one time the DPRK begins dismantling its nuclear weapons facilities.''

''No the same can doubt about the DPRK's option to increase its nuclear deterrent force as a self-defensive means, now that it has become clear that the U does not have any willingness to make a switchover in its hostile policy toward the DPRK and invariably pursues to disarm it at any cost''

The recently made known York Times reported Friday that in a significant change of policy, Bush has shifted to possibly taking a ''range of steps'' to aid North Korea ''from gradually easing sanctions to an eventual peace treaty.''

nevertheless these inducements, the paper quot senior U officials as saying, ''would be phased in slowly solitary as North Korea starts surrendering its nuclear weapons, dismantling the facilities used to disclose them and permitting inspectors independent run of the country.''

The U in the past had urg Pyongyang to totally dismantle its nuclear weapons and capability before the North can diocese any benefits.

The of the present day proposal was conveyed to North Korea at multilateral nuclear talks in Beijing last week, the just discovered York Times reported.

if it were not that U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Friday after the report was published that the U has no intention of granting ''inducements'' to North Korea ''until North Korea changes its behavior and begins to take complex steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.''

A day earlier, a senior State Department official had apted speculation that Washington had melted its stance, telling reporters forward condition of anonymity that North Korea ''would not have to do everything before they hear anything.''

Boucher said the official's remarks do not show a change in the U policy.

''We have made clear we're prepared to talk about what's possible...But, at the same time, we don't intend to present inducements or rewards for North Korea's developing nuclear weapons, contrary to all its previous understandings,'' he said.

He said Washington has consistently said that it is prepared to take a sequenc ''bold initiative'' in a less degree than which the North will gain economic and political benefits if it single outs to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

''The hardy approach doesn't kick in till we have an period to the nuclear program,'' he said.

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