NKorea vows not to swap N-weapons for aid

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea, under international pressure to return to nuclear disarmament talks, vowed Friday never to give up its atomic arsenal in return for economic aid.
The communist states official news agency instead demanded an end to what it called US hostility apparently restating a call for a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.
Seouls military said separately the North had declared live-fire zones near its disputed sea border with South Korea, raising the prospect of a further display of firepower after shelling in late January heightened tensions.
The North has also moved some multiple rocket launchers to bases along its west coast, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told AFP. It was unclear whether this was part of a military drill or a permanent move.
Chinese and North Korean negotiators held talks in Beijing last week about restarting the six-party nuclear forum, which the North quit last April.
The two sides also discussed possible economic assistance, South Koreas Yonhap news agency has reported. Some analysts believe the North will eventually have to return to dialogue given its worsening economy and acute food shortages.
The North has developed atomic bombs for its own defence, not to threaten anybody or receive economic favours or rewards, the Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary.
It is a misjudgement if the outside world thinks it will dump nuclear bombs in return for economic benefits, the agency said.
Unless (the US) terminates its hostile policy and nuclear threats towards our republic, our abandonment of nuclear weapons will not happen even if the earth breaks.
Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, has set two conditions for resuming the nuclear dialogue: the lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty.
The North says it developed nuclear weapons to defend itself against a potential US attack, and it must have a peace treaty with Washington before it considers handing them over.
Pyongyang has previously spurned Seouls offer of massive economic aid in return for denuclearisation.
The North has now declared four exclusion zones in the Yellow Sea including two near the border and two in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off its northeast coast, South Koreas military said.
Meanwhile, North Korea, under pressure to return to disarmament talks, is planning live-fire exercises off near sea borders with the South, a South Korean agency on Friday, in a move that would raise tension on the troubled peninsula.
North Korea is apparently using military threats against US ally South Korea to help strengthen its hand to win concessions from regional powers, as the hermit state appears ready to return to international talks on ending its nuclear arms programme.
But the North said in its official media that no amount of economic reward could ever persuade it to give up its atomic arms ambitions as long it is faced with the threat of attack from what it sees as a hostile United States.
Last month, the two Koreas had a rare exchange of artillery fire near a disputed sea border, which resulted in no injuries or damage but prompted brief and temporary dips in Seoul stock markets and the South Korean won.
North Korea said it would be firing from four spots on its west coast and two on its east coast from Saturday through Monday and declared them no-sail zones, the Souths Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration said on its Internet site.
After the first exchange of fire with the South in late January, the North fired hundreds of shells towards a disputed sea border with the South over the next several days.
The additional firing by Pyongyang did not impact markets as investors have grown used to small-scale military grandstanding by the mercurial North.
North Korea has boycotted for about a year six-country talks on ending its nuclear arms programme in exchange for massive aid to prop up its wobbly economy and an end to its international ostracism.