North Korea critcises Obama summit as prelude to war

North Korea on Friday denounced South Korean President Park Geun-hye's first visit to the US and summit with US President Barack Obama as a prelude to war, Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported. The spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) described the working visit by South Korean leader as a "junket" tour that strained tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding region. Park was headed home Friday after wrapping up her five-day trip to the US in her first overseas tour since taking office in February. "It is a curtain-raiser to a dangerous war to invade the DPRK (North Korea), " the official said in a response to a question raised by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Seoul. The CPRK official made clear Park's calls for inter-Korean confidence building is nothing more than a new version of the "nukes, opening and USD 3, 000" policy pursued by former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Lee said Seoul will help increase the North's per capita income to USD 3,000 only if the country gives up its nuclear weapons program. "Her 'confidence process' means South Korea cannot tolerate the North's access to nukes and there can be no reward for its provocation and threat and it will be forced to pay a price for its provocation," the CPRK official asserted. He said this translates into "self-recognition" of the fact that her stance on key issues is nothing more than a "policy of confrontation." The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended without a formal peace treaty.