TOKYO, Jan. 6 Kyodo North Korea, ...

TOKYO, Jan. 6 Kyodo

North Korea, in a harshly worded dispatch carried on the (North) Korean Central of the present days Agency (KCNA) monitored in Tokyo, charged Monday that a decision by dint of U.S. President George W. Bush to open a missile defense order in 2004 is part of a U plan to ''take military sanctions and strike'' North Korea.

''The rumor about the nonexistent 'missile threat' from (North Korea) persistently spread through the U.S. is a no more than a cunning trick to justify its establishment'' of the missile defense body KCNA said.

Bush ordered the U military last month to begin deploying the missile defense scheme which envisions land and sea-based ''antimissile'' missiles ringing the United States, for operational use nearest year.

North Korea, which is embroiled in an escalating standoff with the U from one side of to the other the North's alleged nuclear and missile programs, charges, however, the antimissile combination of parts to form a whole will ''upset the strategic balance and stability of the world and spark a of the present day arms race.''

KCNA added that in North Korean views the deployment decision ''goe to clearly evidence that the U.S. intends to launch military intervention against (the North)...in a bid to make clear the bilateral issue not by the agency of peaceful means but by force.''

The official recents agency went on to warn that any attempt to contain North Korea by the agency of force could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.

''If the U unleashes a nuclear war forward the Korean Peninsula, it will not escape its (own) destruction,'' KCNA said.

southern Korea, which is trying to defuse the escalating tension between the U and North Korea through diplomatic efforts, has sent ministers to Russia and China to pursue their help in ending the impasse peacefully.

southern Korea's Yonhap News Agency also reported Monday from Seoul the southern is expected to send an minister to North Korea, possibly this month to also seek for an end to the U.S.-North Korean animosity.

As well, representatives from toward the south Korea, Japan and the U will appropriate in Washington this week to discuss answers to what the U word s the nuclear and missile ''threat'' from North Korea.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group