N Korea accuses US of plotting invasion

Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the Stalinist country's ruling Korean Workers Party, also accused Washington of exploiting "human rights" issues in order to cover up its hegemonic agenda.

The comments came two days after Pyongyang said it would no longer engage in multilateral talks aimed at resolving a stand-off over its nuclear programmes, declaring it had made atomic bombs to protect itself against a US attack.

"It is an invariable ambition of the US to invade the DPRK (North Korea) and dominate Asia with the Korean Peninsula as a springboard and establish a global order of its domination," the daily said.

"The US has gone arrogant enough to divide countries of the world into this or that category and pursue a hegemonistic and unilateral policy, styling itself the world 'leader'," it said.

"The US talk about 'peace and human rights' is nothing but a slogan for invading and dominating other countries and a subterfuge to cover up its criminal nature," the newspaper added.

Analysts said that Pyongyang might have withdrawn from the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons in order to increase its leverage in the long-running negotiations.

There have been three rounds of the six-party talks since August 2003, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

North Korea boycotted a fourth round in September 2004, complaining that the United States sticks to its "hostile" policy toward the communist country.

Meanwhile, North Korea issued a strong warning to South Korea Saturday over what it claimed was the South's repeated intrusion into its waters, saying the alleged infringements could lead to a "very serious disaster."

"The South Korean army perpetrated military provocations by infiltrating a battleship several times into the (North Korean) waters," a press release carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said.

"This can not but be an extremely irresponsible and base act of treachery," the statement said.

"The (Navy) command warns the South Korean military authorities that such dangerous military provocations may entail a very serious disaster," it said.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a fragile armistice, rather than a peace treaty.

North Korea has never recognised the sea border with the South that was drawn up by a US-led UN Command after the war, and it is a frequent flashpoint between them. Pyongyang puts the border at further south.

North Korea made similar claims of intrusion three times in the past month.