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— North Korea ended its official silence on the U.S. election Wednesday, denying claims it was delaying its nuclear disarmament to hold out for a change in the White House.
A commentary in the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper asserted the North does not have any expectations for the next U.S. president, but said progress on ending its nuclear programs would "go up in smoke" if Washington opts for a hard-line policy.
"We have nothing to do with who becomes the president in the United States," the newspaper said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Washington has significantly softened its previous tough approach toward Pyongyang after the communist regime conducted its first-ever nuclear test in 2006 in an attempt to facilitate progress in the disarmament talks.
The newspaper repeated Pyongyang's line that the U.S. is to blame for the deadlock halting an aid-for-disarmament deal reached last year with the U.S. and other regional powers.
The U.S. has accused the North of failing to provide a complete declaration of its nuclear weapons programs, but Pyongyang said Washington has delayed meeting its commitments to remove the North from the U.S. terrorism and trade blacklists.
During last week's visit to North Korea by the New York Philharmonic, some North Koreans displayed knowledge of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. They also said they did not have any preference for a particular candidate.
