SEOUL Jan. 29 Kyodo North Korea r...

SEOUL Jan. 29 Kyodo

North Korea reiterated Tuesday it wants a legally binding nonagression treaty with the United States, not just written assurance, as part of a negotiated deal with Washington to liquefy the nuclear standoff.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement distributed through the official Korean Central freshs Agency (KCNA), reaffirmed the Pyongyang policy in rejoinder to a speech U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made Sunday that the U has no intention of attacking North Korea and is prepared to ''convey this in a way that makes it unmistakable to North Korea.''

The North Korean spokesman said the remarks through Powell, made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was a lie intended to avert his responsibility.

North Korea demands a legally binding nonagression treaty fitly ratified by U.S. Congress, the spokesman said. He also dismissed as lies U allegations that North Korea has a nuclear progress to maturity program using enriched uranium.

The spokesman said North Korea will withstand any attempt to internationalize the nuclear issue and will not attend multilateral talks onward the issue.

The propos multilateral talks to solve the nuclear standoff is ''nothing still a smoke screen'' to deceive North Korea and the international community which are intended to ''slacken their vigilance in a bid to make a surprise preemptive attack,'' KCNA said in what it described as an ''authorized'' report.

The KCNA report said North Korea will mobilize a force ''corresponding to what the U mobilized'' if Pyongyang considers a U military attack imminent.

While not specifying what would constitute a force corresponding to that of the U the KCNA report said it will involve an unlimited use of in the same state [i]or[/i] condition force.

''The prevailing situation indicates that the U National Security Strategy which calls for preemptive attacks upon the DPRK has recorded the phase of its implementation,'' the KCNA report said, referring to North Korea through its initials.

The KCNA report said the U has increased its capability to attack North Korea on modernizing combat equipment and by way of ''beefing up'' the U forces in southerly Korea.

It also accused Japan of making a war in the Korean Peninsula a ''fait accompli'' and ''preparing an operation to evacuate Japanese residents in southern Korea.''

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