The Democratic People's Republic of Korea threatened new counter-demands yesterday in the standoff with the United States over Pyongyang's nuclear program, saying it may insist on the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and a "verifiable and irreversible" security guarantee from Washington.

　　The DPRK said it would forward the new demands if the US failed to drop its own demand that Pyongyang "completely, verifiably and irreversibly" dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.

　　The DPRK has said it is willing to give up its nuclear program in return for energy and economic aid, as well as a US guarantee that it will not invade the country.

　　But a second round of six-nation talks aimed at brokering a deal ended last month without a major breakthrough. Delegate nations differed over which programs and nuclear sites should be subject to dismantlement and inspection and over how any dismantlement would be verified, South Korean officials said.

　　In a dispatch carried yesterday by the country's official KCNA news agency, the DPRK said if the US continues to insist on complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement, it would offer its own counter demands.

　　"With the United States demanding (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement), we too cannot but demand the complete withdrawal of US military stationed in South Korea in a verifiable manner, and also a complete, verifiable and irreversible security guarantee," the report said.

　　The DPRK frequently demands that the US remove its troops from South Korea, but attaching them to the nuclear issue would be a new move. The US has 37,000 soldiers in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

　　The new demands, if brought to the negotiating table, could complicate the next round of six-nation talks between the US, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan. The sides agreed to meet again before July and plan to form a lower-level "working group" to work out the details.

　　The KCNA report, citing a commentary in the state-run Rodong Sinmun, said Washington wanted the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear programs to soften its defenses ahead of a war.

　　"If the US drops its demand that the DPRK first give up its nuclear program and switches its hostile policy toward DPRK, there would be dramatic progress in resolving the issue."

　　(The Associated Press)