North Korea's 'peace offensive' aimed more at aid rather than nuclear program - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The declaration of a 'peace offensive' by North Korea aimed at pacifying relations with the US could lead to the resumption of six-party talks, but Pyongyang hasn't given any indication as to whether it is willing to give up its nuclear program. The North Korean regime kicked off the offensive with a carefully modulated New Year's message of reconciliation in the wake of US envoy Stephen Bosworth's mission to Pyongyang in early December, The Christian Science Monitor reports. The offensive calls for establishing "a lasting peace system on the Korean peninsula" in order to "make it nuclear-free through dialogue." It also advocates "an end to the hostile relationship" with the US while asking North Koreans "to defend with our very lives the leadership" of Kim Jong-il. However, Kim Tae-woo, veteran analyst with the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis, pointed out that North Korea's good-will gestures don't have "anything to do with the nuclear program. North Korea wants to achieve a number of goals from the New Year policy, which includes diplomatic relations with the US and the promise of massive quantities of aid to meet the energy requirements needed to jumpstart its dilapidated economy, the paper opined.