FROM REUTERS
(Reuters) - North Korea stepped back from confrontation over "reckless" military drills by the South on Monday and reportedly issued a new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.
Air-raid bunkers on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong shook during South Korea's live-fire artillery exercise, which went on for more than 90 minutes.
But the North Korean guns that had shelled the island after a similar drill last month stayed silent, bringing a measure of relief in a crisis that raised fears of war along one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers.
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation," the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North's Korean People's Army Supreme Command that called the drills a "childish play with fire."
The U.N. Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea's refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer reportedly made to U.S. trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.
Richardson, speaking to CNN from Pyongyang, said he sensed a greater flexibility among North Korean officials.
"Their tone was more positive, as if they realized they'd gone into the precipice with their very negative actions," said Richardson, who has had extensive past contacts with North Korea.
"They seemed to realize that they had maybe gone too far and now was a time to reach out," Richardson said, according to a transcript released by CNN.
But others remained worried.
"The situation is very tense," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. "There can be no optimism in this situation."
The United States said North Korea's decision not to retaliate simply showed it was behaving "the way countries are supposed to act." It reacted cautiously to word of the nuclear offer, saying it would wait for concrete evidence of North Korea's intentions.
"We've seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We'll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances."
South Korean financial markets took the day's events in their stride, recovering from early falls, but international investors remained concerned, with the cost of insuring South Korean sovereign debt for five years rising 10 percent.
The mercurial North had threatened it would strike back if its neighbor went ahead with the live-fire exercise.
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(Reuters) - North Korea stepped back from confrontation over "reckless" military drills by the South on Monday and reportedly issued a new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.
Air-raid bunkers on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong shook during South Korea's live-fire artillery exercise, which went on for more than 90 minutes.
But the North Korean guns that had shelled the island after a similar drill last month stayed silent, bringing a measure of relief in a crisis that raised fears of war along one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers.
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation," the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North's Korean People's Army Supreme Command that called the drills a "childish play with fire."
The U.N. Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea's refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer reportedly made to U.S. trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.
Richardson, speaking to CNN from Pyongyang, said he sensed a greater flexibility among North Korean officials.
"Their tone was more positive, as if they realized they'd gone into the precipice with their very negative actions," said Richardson, who has had extensive past contacts with North Korea.
"They seemed to realize that they had maybe gone too far and now was a time to reach out," Richardson said, according to a transcript released by CNN.
But others remained worried.
"The situation is very tense," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. "There can be no optimism in this situation."
The United States said North Korea's decision not to retaliate simply showed it was behaving "the way countries are supposed to act." It reacted cautiously to word of the nuclear offer, saying it would wait for concrete evidence of North Korea's intentions.
"We've seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We'll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances."
South Korean financial markets took the day's events in their stride, recovering from early falls, but international investors remained concerned, with the cost of insuring South Korean sovereign debt for five years rising 10 percent.
The mercurial North had threatened it would strike back if its neighbor went ahead with the live-fire exercise.
READ MORE
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