Pyongyang slams Israeli 'slander'

N. Korea reacts to Lieberman's accusations of spreading WMDs.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS, BEN HARTMAN
shane smith dprk 311 (photo credit: Shane Smith/VBS.tv)
shane smith dprk 311
(photo credit: Shane Smith/VBS.tv)
North Korea denied an Israeli allegation that Pyongyang was spreading weapons of mass destruction, and vowed not to tolerate Israel's alleged slander in a statement released on Saturday.The North's Foreign Ministry said they "have nothing to do with any spread of WMDs." It also said it would never pardon Israel for "daring slander the dignified (North) by faking up sheer lies."
The comment published by the North's official Korean Central News Agency was the first official response to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's comment this past week.
Lieberman said Wednesday in Japan that North Korea, Iran and Syria cooperate and are the world's biggest security threat because they build and spread weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Tokyo, Lieberman said, “This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran, it’s the biggest threat to the entire world – not to Israel, but to the entire world.”
He added that “we saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok, with huge numbers of different weapons, with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah.”
On December 12, Thai authorities, acting on a tip from a foreign source, seized a cargo plane in Bangkok full of more than 40 tons of weaponry, including missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. The Thai Air Force said the plane had arrived from Pyongyang.