U.S. Says Hawk Bolton Won't Go to N.Korea Talks

CANBERRA (Reuters)

The United States said on Tuesday that a senior American official, condemned by North Korea as "human scum" for a personalized attack on its leader, would not take part in nuclear crisis talks in Beijing this month.

But U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a news conference in the Australian capital Canberra that many in the United States shared the views of arms control negotiator John Bolton on the reclusive communist state.

Armitage later told Australian television that six-way talks in Beijing to defuse the crisis would most likely begin on August 27. The talks will bring together the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan.

"The United States government will make the decision on who will participate in the upcoming six-way talks and Mr. Bolton was not scheduled and will not be participating in these talks," Armitage told the news conference. -

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

<The crisis escalated early this year when North Korea expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors, pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and restarted a mothballed reactor at Yongbyon, north of the capital, Pyongyang.>

No, the crisis was created when the Americans breached the Agreed Framework reached with N.Korea in 1984. The American breach became apparent when it became obvious by Oct. 2002, that they had bargained in bad faith and had no intention of delivering promised reactors by 2003. A second American breach took place when it failed to deliver 500,000 tons of fuel oil promised under the agreement which plunged N.Korea into darkness and cold.