'US worst human rights graveyard'

Pyongyang will increase its "deterrent force" if the US continues its hostile policy aimed at bringing down the North Korean regime, report agencies quoting an unidentified official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

The statement, carried by the North Korean official news agency KCNA, also criticized the North Korean Human Rights Act signed by US President George Bush in October.

Among other things, the Act aims to "to promote respect for and protection of fundamental human rights in North Korea" and "progress toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula under a democratic system of government."

"By nature the US is

the worst human rights graveyard in the world," the statement said."This is clearly proved by what is happening in Iraq.

"If the United States more desperately pursues its hostile policy to isolate and stifle North Korea, the latter will react to it by further increasing its self-defensive deterrent force."

The statement came as hectic diplomatic efforts continued to start the fourth round of six-way talks on Pyongang's nuclear plans--involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan -- which have been repeatedly postponed by North Korea on the grounds that it would not negotiate with the US until it stopped its "hostile" policy against Pyongyang.