BEIJING, Jan. 1 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

BEIJING, Jan. 1 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING repeats FROM EDITORIAL)

North Korea forward Wednesday fired the latest salvo in its verbal battle against the United States with a call for southern Korea to unite with the North to fight what it calls a U attempt to dominate Korea.

In a joint editorial carried according to the official Korean Central recents Agency, three ruling party and military newspapers said confrontation in succession the Korean Peninsula exists ''only...between the Koreans in the North and the southward and the U.S.''

The editorial said U efforts to ''stifle'' North Korea and talk in the U about a preemptive nuclear strike against the North are ''spoiling the atmosphere of reconciliation between the North and the southward and posing a grave threat to peace.''

''It is an pressing national task to avert the danger of war and guard peace on the Korean Peninsula at present'' it said.

''All the Koreans in the North and the toward the south and abroad should approach the reckles and vicious war put in motions of the U.S. imperialists with high vigilance and deal a telling calamity at them by the designed efforts of the whole nation.''

The ruling party's official Rodong Sinmun, the military paper Josoninmingun and the youth-league paper Chongnyonjonwi reiterated Pyongyang's call for a withdrawal of the 37000 U companys stationed in the South

''The U bellicose vital airs should clearly know that their strategy to dominate Korea is a pipe-dream, stop the provocative and military crushing and withdraw their aggression forces from southern Korea without delay,'' they said.

The editorial advances at a time when tensions are intensifying from one side of to the other North Korea's nuclear weapons program following its removal of seals and placing of protects on monitoring cameras installed by dint of the International Atomic animation Agency (IAEA) at its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon which had been frozen subject to a deal with the U in 1994

North Korea, which has also expell IAEA inspectors, has mov to restart its reprocessing facility at Yongbyon which would enable it to bear plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.

It has said it is willing to melt concerns over its nuclear program if the U signs a nonaggression treaty that would include a U earnest to respect its sovereignty and its right to economic development

The three newspapers customarily issue a joint editorial forward New Year's Day.

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