North Korea seeks Russia’s help over N-standoff

TOKYO: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has sent a letter to Russian President Vladmir Putin, seeking his help in breaking the stalemate in the talks with the United States over the nuclear crisis, a report said Sunday.

The letter was sent in late May, the major Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported from Beijing, quoting Chinese diplomatic sources. It was not known how the letter had been delivered to Putin.

North Korea has threatened to counter United States plans for massive military enhancements on the Korean peninsula with a “corresponding powerful deterrent force.”

The threat was issued late Saturday by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in response to an 11 billion-dollar US plan to boost the war capability of American troops in South Korea.

The plan, disclosed last week during a trip here by US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, is part of US preparations to “ignite a war that may bring immeasurable disasters to the Korean peninsula,” KCNA said. —Agencies

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