North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war:

Washington is demanding the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear prorgammes, both plutonium and enriched uranium schemes, before it will offer concessions to the impoverished state.

Pyongyang denies having a uranium programme and has said it will freeze its plutonium weapons programme in return for simultaneous rewards from Washington

Isn't that extortion? (from Agence France-Presse, via Yahoo! Singapore News).