North Korea's Kim says no concessions to US -Yonhap

SEOUL, July 9 (Reuters) North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il said his country would not budge in negotiations with the United States, adding the reclusive state was ready to meet any attack with a strong blow of its own, Yonhap reported today.

''Kim declared that even a small concession wouldn't be made to the sworn-enemy U.S. imperialistic aggressors,'' the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said in an editorial monitored in Seoul, the South Korean news agency said.

After Pyongyang defied world opinion and test-fired seven missiles last week, Japan formally introduced a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and France, to impose sanctions against its missile programme.

''Kim announced a heroic DPRK (North Korean) position, in which it promised to answer to an enemy's retaliation with retaliation and to an all-out war with an all-out war. That is not empty words,'' the broadcast said.

Kim did not refer to the missile tests and the North Korean broadcaster did not say when he made the comments, Yonhap said.

In previous official media reports, North Korea promised to use force against any country that tries to pressure it into a halt of its missile launches.

REUTERS SHB PM1408