N. Korea Wants Retraction of Rice Comment

The United States must withdraw its description of the communist nation as an “outpost of tyranny” and treat Pyongyang as a friend if it wants nuclear talks to resume, a senior North Korean official said Friday.

The State Department confirmed that Joseph DeTrani, the top U.S. official in the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, and James Foster, who is in charge of the department’s office of Korean affairs, resumed contact with the North Koreans at a two-day conference on northeast Asian security. DeTrani said it was a good meeting but would not elaborate.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there were no negotiations at the closed meeting.

North Korea’s director general of North American affairs, Li Gun, told reporters that the next step was up to the Americans.

Speaking in English, Li said, “We told them to just withdraw the words ‘outpost of tyranny.’ We demand it.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used the phrase in January.

The multilateral talks -- involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- have been stalled since June 2004. Since then, North Korea has declared it has nuclear weapons, claiming they are a deterrent against a possible attack by the United States.