LONDON -- On May 9, in an interview in Moscow on CNN U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "the United States, of course, recognizes that North Korea is a sovereign state."
Many people thought that this represented a softening of the U.S. position on North Korea in an attempt to get that country back to the six-party talks aimed at getting it to give up its nuclear aspirations. That was, however, not how the leadership of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) read it.
Even for those of us used to DPRK rhetorical flourishes, the North Koreans' reaction to Rice's statement seemed a bit strong, maybe a bit over the top: Rice's "loudmouthed recognition of the sovereign state and the like were nothing but a ruse to conceal the U.S. attempt at bringing down (North Korea's) regime," an unidentified spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said.