SEOUL, Jan 4: North Korea made its first comments on Friday on an international nuclear disarmament deal since missing an end-of-year deadline to declare its atomic programmes, saying it had been forced to slow compliance.

It also vowed to build its “war deterrence”, accusing the US of stepping up preparations for an attack.

“We have been compelled to slow the disablement process” because the US and other countries in the six-nation deal had been slow to meet their obligations, said Minju Chosun, the mouthpiece for the communist government.

The newspaper did not explain further but said the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula was “totally dependent” on those nations meeting their commitments.

The comments were the first since North Korea missed the deadline to disable its atomic plants and declare all its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid and other benefits.

In a separate commentary, Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party, accused the US of intensifying preparations for an attack.

“The DPRK (North Korean) people, seeing through to the criminal nature of US imperialists, has already been building up their defence capability,” it said.

“To cope with the mounting US nuclear war manoeuvres, the DPRK will further strengthen its own war deterrence.” The six-nation deal involves the two Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia, and the North’s comments came as the US State Department said chief envoy Christopher Hill would arrive Monday in Tokyo to begin an Asian tour.

The tour, which will also take him to Seoul, Beijing and Moscow, is focused on “how to move the six-party process forward,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

North Korea agreed last February to give up its nuclear weapons programmes in return for one million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid, diplomatic benefits and security guarantees.

Pyongyang should have completed the disablement of its nuclear plants, and handed over a complete declaration of all its nuclear programmes and material, by Dec 31 but missed the deadline.

The United States, Japan and South Korea said they were disappointed the deadline had been missed, although the US State Department said a full and accurate declaration was more important than one delivered on time.

The White House has said that it was “skeptical” the North would ever give a full accounting of its nuclear programmes.

A suspected uranium enrichment programme – the issue which in 2002 wrecked a previous disarmament deal – is another key hurdle.

Washington says it has evidence Pyongyang imported material which could be used for such a programme, even if it is not up and running.

The North has never publicly admitted any such operation.—AFP