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North Korea condemned the leaders of Group of Eight Sunday for demanding the complete dismantling of the communist country's nuclear program. "We cannot but wake up to all those attempts to divide and devour our country like they did Iraq," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said through the country's state media. "It will never be possible for them to make another Iraq case in (North Korea)," the spokesman said in a statement monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The G-8 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- agreed last week at their summit in Savanna, Georgia, to reinforce a global regime to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction. In a joint declaration, the G8 called for a one-year ban on new transfers of uranium enrichment and reprocessing know-how while they work up permanent rules restricting access to technology tied to that key step in nuclear weapons development. The G-8 backed Washington's demand Pyongyang dismantle its nuclear program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner. The spokesman said "such a demand is, mysteriously, the same thing as they sought on Iraq, and this is ultimately to make another Iraq case" in North Korea. A fixed schedule has yet to be announced, but South Korean officials have said North Korea may sit down this month for new six-nation talks aimed at ending the 20-month-old nuclear stand-off. The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have met twice in Beijing -- in August last year and in February -- since the nuclear stand-off flared in October 2002 when Washington accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program based on enriched uranium. The second round of talks ended with agreements to set up a preparatory working group and hold a third round by the end of June. At the first working group meeting held last month, Pyongyang insisted it would never accept US demands for a complete dismantling of its nuclear programs without receiving rewards first. Pyongyang says it is ready to freeze its nuclear weapons drive if Washington abandons its "hostile policy" towards the communist country and signs a non-aggression accord. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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