North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (C), accompanied by military staff

MOSCOW, April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The mounting tensions surrounding the North Korean nuclear crisis has prompted Russia to take "preventive" action to defend its population in the region, a top foreign ministry official said Friday, April 11.

"We have been forced to think about preventive means to defend our interests and, why hide it, to defend our population bordering Korean territory in the event of a serious conflict in that region," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told the Interfax news agency, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Instructions regarding this were given by the country's leaders to the departments concerned," he added.

Russia has been attempting to mediate in the crisis, which erupted in October when the United States disclosed that North Korea had restarted enriching uranium for its nuclear program.

Moscow has tried to convince Washington to agree to Pyongyang's request of direct talks, but the United States has insisted the crisis be dealt with multilaterally by the regional powers, or perhaps through the United Nations.

Losyukov - who met with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il during a trip to North Korea after the U.S. disclosure - warned Friday that the crisis was "continuing to worsen and approach the red line, making an uncontrollable reaction possible."

The first UN Security Council talks on the crisis ended in deadlock Wednesday, April 9. with attempts by Britain, France and the United States to bring UN pressure on Pyongyang opposed by the other two permanent council members, China and Russia.

Late last year, North Korea restarted a mothballed nuclear reactor at Yongbyon - which can produce weapons-grade plutonium - and subsequently expelled UN nuclear inspectors as a response to U.S. cut of oil to the country.

The energy-starved country has never publicly admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, but it came close Thursday, April 10, when it said allowing nuclear inspections would entail disarmament.

"The U.S. demand for the DPRK's (North Korea's) scrapping of its nuclear weapons program before dialogue' would lead to inspection and the resultant disarmament spark a war," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Washington believes Pyongyang has one or two nuclear bombs and could make several more within six months if it continued on its present course.

'Ready For War'

On Thursday, Jong-il visited an air force base and told pilots he believed they were ready to "beat back the enemy any time," the state news agency reports.

The visit came as a senior North Korean diplomat said the outcome of the war in Iraq had made his country determined to defend itself against a possible United States attack.

"The result of the Iraq war gives the DPRK [North Korea] a kind of determination and the will to take assured measures to defend its territory against possible U.S. attacks," Han Song-ryol told a seminar in Cambridge, in the U.S.

It is believed to be the first time North Korea has commented on the outcome of the Iraq occupation since the fall of Baghdad Wednesday.

Iraq, like North Korea, also falls into Washington's "axis of evil".

Han added that the U.S. could "expect many positive steps from North Korea in resolving nuclear problems" if it accepted its offer for direct talks.

But Washington wants multilateral talks which would also include China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

The 61-year-old Kim toured flying unit 887 of the Korean People's Army, the official news agency said in a dispatch, one week after he made his first publicized appearance in 50 days at a military hospital.

Kim was given a guided tour by the commander of the air base whose location was not disclosed and gave a pep talk to pilots after watching them train.

"He noted with great satisfaction that they were always maintaining a high degree of revolutionary vigilance and fully prepared to courageously beat back the enemy at any time if he comes in attack," the agency said.

North Korean pilots staged one of the most provocative episodes of the six-month-old nuclear stand-off with the United States when they buzzed a U.S. spy plane over international waters off the North Korea coast on March 2.

The United States condemned the act as "reckless" and delivered an official protest to North Korea.

Four North Korean fighters flew within 15 meters (50 feet) of the Air Force RC-135 and according to some reports tried to force the plane to land in North Korea.

The North Korean leader's latest appearance came a week to the day after he was pictured smiling and surrounded by top military brass outside a military hospital.

That was the first time in 50 days that North Korea's propaganda machine mentioned his activities in public since February 12 when he attended a reception hosted by the Russian ambassador in Pyongyang to celebrate his birthday.

Analysts said that Kim was focusing on developments in Iraq and busily plotting his next move in the nuclear stand-off amid fears that North Korea could be Washington's next target after the fall of Baghdad.

In a report released Thursday, the American CIA said North Korea appeared to be aiming to build a plant that could produce enough uranium for two or more nuclear weapons a year.

The unclassified report to Congress assessed the acquisition of technology related to weapons of mass destruction for various countries in 2002.

The period covered by the report precedes the stand-off between the U.S. and North Korea, which has expelled UN nuclear inspectors and restarted a nuclear reactor.

Suspicion

"The United States has remained suspicious that North Korea has been working on uranium enrichment for several years," the report said, according to the BBC online news service.

"However, we did not obtain clear evidence indicating that North Korea had begun constructing a centrifuge facility until recently."

North Korea continues to export ballistic missile-related equipment and technology to the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, the report added.

The CIA has at other times said that North Korea probably already has one or two nuclear weapons.