≫ A South Korean protester, who carries a placard with a portrait of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, shouts a slogan against the U.S. and South Korean government’s policy against North Korea in front of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept., 30. Steinberg huddles with South Korean officials Wednesday to discuss North Korea policy amid a flurry of diplomacy to get North Korea to return to disarmament talks. (AP)

North Korea’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 30 criticized President Lee’s “Grand Bargain” by saying, “The proposal’s mention of us abandoning our nuclear program without any guarantee that the U.S. will cancel its anti-North Korean policy is hot air.” KCNA also criticized the “Grand Bargain,” saying it contains the same flaws as the “non-nuclear, openness, 3000” Plan that President Lee Myung-bak has promoted since his presidential election campaign. This is North Korea’s first response to President Lee’s “Grand Bargain.”

In an article entitled, “A suggestion that is useless in solving nuclear issues,” the KCNA said that a high ranking official in South Korea suggested the “Grand Bargain” during a visit to the U.S. The KCNA added, “Nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula are the result of the U.S.’s anti-North Korean policies and a matter that should be solved between North Korea and the U.S.” KCNA concluded, “The Grand Bargain’s intention is to interrupt the North Korea-U.S. dialogue in order to disrupt the solution-making process to this nuclear issue.“

The KCNA also said, “We also think South Korea’s presidential advisers are pitiful for suggesting this plan to the President and have caused him great embarrassment in front of the world.”