South Korea's president said on Monday he has no intention of backing down to North Korea, which may be preparing to test-fire its longest range missile and in recent weeks has threatened to reduce its neighbor to ashes.
Analysts do not expect a major conflict between the two technically still at war but said the North's saber-rattling is aimed at pressuring Seoul to drop its hard-line policy and grabbing the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama, Reuters reported.
"Our government is always ready to sit and talk with North Korea on any issue. But we're not going to rush because I believe what's important in inter-Korean relations is having unwavering and firm principles," President Lee Myung-bak said in prepared remarks for a radio address.
Lee, who took office a year ago, has angered his destitute neighbor by ending what once had been a free flow of unconditional aid and instead tying the South's handout to progress the North makes toward ending its military threat.
"Rather than trying to be nice to North Korea at the start and ending up with poor results, I believe it's better to end up with goods results even if the start is difficult," Lee said.
North Korea is making moves to test its Taepodong-2 missile, which has never flown successfully but is designed to eventually hit U.S. territory, and it may also fire short-range missiles toward a disputed sea border with the South to raise tension, news reports said last week citing intelligence sources.
The North's official media on Sunday unleashed another in its series of verbal volleys toward Lee's conservative government, saying it: "drove the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war through their reckless anti-DPRK (North Korea) confrontational moves that will only precipitate their ruin."
North Korea wants to advance nuclear disarmament steps if its aid demands are met and it played down concerns over possible missile launches, a former senior U.S. diplomat just back from Pyongyang told reporters in Beijing on Saturday.
Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said senior North Korean officials he met in his five-day visit to Pyongyang would not confirm or deny any missile launch plans.
Sputtering talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms program have been stalled for months with Pyongyang complaining aid given in return for crippling its nuclear plant is not being delivered as promised in a deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The five regional powers are demanding the secretive North accept a system to check claims it made about its nuclear program with the United States saying it wants to halt promised energy aid until Pyongaung agrees to verification steps.
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