The United States is discussing the option of asking several countries, including Australia, to provide engergy assistance to North Korea equivalent to the level of aid Japan has postponed the provison of citing the abduction issue as a reason, in return for the reclusive state's disablement of its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

Is it really necessary that we let Bush and Cheney destroy another innocent country before they pretend to leave the stage after Nov. 4? Does this Nation, which fancies itself as a great defender of freedom and democracy, intend to allow them do to our ally Pakistan what they have done to Iraq and Afghanistan? If we do not feel extreme shame for what is being done in our names there then perhaps it is true that we are something less than human, merely thinking cattle.

North Korea said Friday it was working on restarting its nuclear plant and dismissed the prospect of being removed from a U.S. terrorism blacklist in return for a disarmament deal.

North Korea has begun reassembling its Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs in violation of U.S. conditions for improved diplomatic relations, Fox News reported on Tuesday.

North Korea said on August 26 it would cease disabling its nuclear facilities and accused the United States of violating a disarmament deal.

North Korea said Tuesday it has suspended work to disable its nuclear reactor in anger over Washington's failure to remove it from the U.S. list of terror sponsors. The North said it will soon consider a step to restore the plutonium-producing facility.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said North Korea still has obligations to fulfill.

North Korea said on Tuesday it will stop disabling its nuclear facilities and consider restoring the Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs, accusing the United States of violating a disarmament deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Japan that Washington would not remove North Korea from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism on the initial deadline of Monday, Japan's foreign minister said.

Washington promised North Korea it could be removed from the list as early as Aug. 11 -- Monday -- if a robust verification plan was in place, but U.S. officials have made clear this was a "minimum timeline" rather than a fixed date.

Quoting "impeccable official sources", The News reported on Tuesday that "strong evidence and circumstantial evidence of American acquiescence to terrorism inside Pakistan" was outlined by President Pervez Musharraf, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj in separate meetings with two senior US officials in Islamabad on July 12.

Police fired water cannons at thousands of protesters Tuesday as President Bush got a volatile reception in South Korea at the start of his three-nation Asian trip.

The U.S. has told North Korea that it will not strike it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until it agrees on a verification protocol for its nuclear programs and stockpiles, it emerged on Thursday.