Friday, September 12, 2003 · Last updated 1:29 p.m. PT
N. Korea nixes demand to end nuke program
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea again rejected a U.S. demand to end
its nuclear weapons program, saying Friday it has no intention of
disarming itself in the face of perceived American aggression.
The commentary by North Korea's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun comes a
day after U.S. officials said in Washington that the reprocessing of
spent nuclear fuel rods at a key North Korean facility apparently has
ceased, although the reason was unclear.
North Korea can extract weapons-grade plutonium from its pool of 8,000
rods to build several nuclear bombs. The United States has long believed
that North Korea has at least one or two nuclear bombs and could have
five or six within a matter of months.
The Rodong Sinmun position is not new. North Korea repeatedly has
rejected U.S. demands that it allow verifiable and permanent dismantling
of its nuclear weapons programs.
Rodong Sinmun also again accused the United States of "seeking to mount
a pre-emptive nuclear attack," according to the official KCNA news agency.
During last month's six-nation talks in Beijing on resolving the nuclear
crisis, the North Korean delegate said his country intends to formally
declare its possession of nuclear weapons and carry out a nuclear test.
But the Japanese news agency Kyodo, quoting unidentified diplomats,
reported Friday from Moscow that North Korea agreed in principle to a
second round of talks in November.
The Russian news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a diplomatic source in the
North Korean capital, Pyongyang, as saying North Korea is ready to hold
a second round of talks on the dispute "if Washington submits new
proposals to settle it."
The Russian Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the Kyodo report, but
a senior Russian official said talks were possible.
"It all depends on the inclination of all the participants to return to
the talks table," Russia's ITAR-Tass quoted Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying from the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
Meanwhile, Friday, the Kremlin released a portion of a letter that
President Vladimir Putin sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It
said Russia is "ready to make our contribution to achieving positive
results in the talks process on the nuclear problem."
North Korea says it wants the United States to first sign a
nonaggression treaty and normalize relations before it feels safe enough
to scrap its nuclear program.
Washington says it could consider security guarantees and economic help
if Pyongyang first abandons the program.
"Such demand of the U.S. belligerent forces, in essence, means that the
DPRK should completely disarm itself and succumb to the U.S.," Rodong
Sinmun said, using the country's official name, Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
"The U.S. demand for the DPRK's dismantling of its nuclear weapons
program through irreversible verification is unacceptable to the DPRK."
In the absence of a nuclear test, the existence of North Korea's nuclear
weapons has never been verified even though the Stalinist regime claims
it and uses it as a threat against perceived U.S. aggression.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=NKorea%20Nuclear
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