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AP. 31 January 2002.
SEOUL -- One poem lauded it as an "Announcement to humankind." Another poet penned, "Motherland, call your son to fight." These days, North Korean poets are inspired by an unusual topic: the communist government's Jan. 10 decision to withdraw from the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, reported Friday.
Since its withdrawal, communist scribes "have written many revolutionary and militant poems and words of songs, which rouse working people to a sacred battle to annihilate the enemies," KCNA said. "I shout" and "Burning sea of resistance, billow angry waves" were among poems lauding the decision to quit the global arms control treaty and crediting North Korean leader Kim Jong Il with "tirelessly pursuing the great army-based policy to save mankind from nuclear holocaust," it said. Poets penned such verses as "I will report to the supreme commander," "We put the U.S. imperialists to death," and "Hatred to the enemies," KCNA said.
In a separate dispatch, KCNA reported that new anti-U.S. posters "with high ideological and artistic value" have been put up in the streets of Pyongyang and on the walls of villages promoting the confrontation with the United States. The caption of one poster reads, "Let us defend the sovereignty, right to existence and dignity of the country and the nation in a do-or-die spirit," it said. KCNA said the United States threatens the world "with dollars and nuclear weapons," and the North's withdrawal from the nuclear treaty was "a bomb-like declaration pungently accusing the United States of its arrogant, brazen-faced and high-handed practice."
Для жителей народно-демократической Кореи это единственное средство передвижения.
Игорь Константинов, ТВЦ, Пхеньян. (in Russian)
В столице Пхеньяне и его пригородах недостатка в дорогах нет. Длинные проспекты, многие из которых шире Нового Арбата, прорезают весь город. Причем, проезжая часть - хорошего качества, ровная, без выбоин и ухабов. Много площадей, на перекрестках мигают светофоры, и стоят регулировщики. Но поражает другое. Дорожное великолепие Пхеньяна отличается практически полным отсутствием машин. Горожане обычно или ходят пешком или их возят на работу в кузовах грузовиков. Общественный транспорт тоже есть - советские трамваи и троллейбусы образца семидесятых годов, но его мало.
Партийных чиновников в Северной Корее возят или на разваливающихся иномарках или на старых черных Волгах. Встречаются и редкие велосипедисты. Велосипед - тоже роскошь, не говоря уж об автомобиле. Теперь особое внимание. В Северной Корее всего две тысячи машин в личном пользовании. Две тысячи - в стране с населением 20 миллионов человек. Иными словами, одна легковушка на десять тысяч жителей.
По дороге в музей международной дружбы, который по-другому называется музеем подарков товарищу Ким Ир Сену и товарищу Ким Чен Иру, мы ехали два часа из Пхеньяна в горы и за это время не встретили ни одной машины. Кстати, один из самых известных экспонатов музея - правительственный лимузин ЗИС-11О, подаренный Сталиным Ки Ир Сену. Показать его невозможно, потому что проход с видеокамерой в музей строго запрещен, разрешено лишь в виде исключения снимать экскурсантов, которых привозят автобусами, строят в шеренги и ведут группами.
По дороге из Музея подарков кое-какой редкий транспорт, однако, попадался. Дорога в оба конца заняла около четырехсот километров, и в поездке произошел эпизод, наглядно напоминающий о советской действительности полувековой давности. В автобусе кончился бензин и пришлось заправляться. Как и в давние советские годы, в Северной Корее сегодня нет автозаправочных станций. Бензин получают на госбазах, возят в бочке в багажнике, переливают его, когда надо, в ведро и только потом в бак. Бак закрыт замком с цепью.
Что такое пробка на дороге, жителю Северной Кореи надо очень долго объяснять. Но в пустых дорогах, видимо, и кроется большое преимущество. Уже в обозримом будущем прогнозируется сближение двух Корей. Южная Корея, как известно, один из крупнейших в мире производителей легковушек, и, если они хлынут на северные просторы полуострова, то со всей очевидностью станет ясно, что труд народа и вождей Северной Кореи по сооружению дорог не пропал даром.
The New York Times reported that US spy satellites over the DPRK have detected what appear to be trucks moving the country's stockpile of 8,000 nuclear fuel rods out of storage, prompting fears within the Bush administration that the DPRK is preparing to produce roughly a half dozen nuclear weapons, US officials said today. Throughout January, intelligence analysts have seen extensive activity at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, with some trucks pulling up to the building housing the storage pond. While the satellites could not see exactly what was being put into the trucks, analysts concluded that it was likely that workers were transporting the rods to another site, either to get them out of sight, or to move them to a reprocessing plant to convert them into bomb-grade plutonium.
The Bush administration has said nothing publicly about the truck activity, deflecting questions about the subject. US intelligence analysts have informally concluded that the movement of the rods, combined with other activity that now appears to be under way at the Yongbyon complex, could allow the DPRK to begin producing bomb-grade plutonium by the end of March. "There's still a debate about exactly what we are seeing and how provocative it is," said one senior official. "The North Koreans made no real effort to hide this from us." The satellite photographs of the truck activity have been tightly held by the administration, and not yet shared widely with allies. (David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, "SATELLITES SAID TO SEE ACTIVITY AT NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR SITE," Washington, 01/31/03) and the Washington Post (Walter Pincus, "HINTS OF NORTH KOREA PLUTONIUM OUTPUT," 01/31/03)
The Korean Central News Agency of DPRK reported that a photo exhibition showing the US imperialists' killing of ROK schoolgirls was opened at the central youth hall here on Jan. 29. On display are photos showing the struggle of the ROK people and students to condemn the US imperialist aggression troops for driving an armored car over ROK schoolgirls Sin Hyo Sun and Sim Mi Son to death, punish the criminals and drive the US troops out of South Korea. Exhibited are photos showing the US military court announcing the results of deceptive investigation and giving a verdict of not guilty to the criminals and the bereaved families getting angry at it.
Other photos show candle-light demonstrations, hunger strikes, protest visits and other forms of anti-US struggle of the ROK people of all strata demanding punishment of the US criminals, an open apology of Bush, total revision of the unequal ROK-US Status of Forces Agreement and withdrawal of the US troops. An opening ceremony of the photo exhibition was attended by presidium members of the DPRK headquarters of the national alliance of youth and students for the country's reunification, members of its central committee, officials of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, youth and students in Pyongyang. Kim Kyong Ho, first secretary of the central committee of the youth league, made an opening address. ("PHOTO EXHIBITION ON GIS' MURDER OF SCHOOLGIRLS OPENS IN PYONGYANG," Pyongyang, 01/31/03)
The Associated Press reported that blaming the current impasse on deceit and hostility by the Bush administration, a DPRK diplomat today renewed Pyongyang's demand for direct negotiations with the US on nuclear weapons. Speaking in Beijing, Choe Jin Su, DPRK ambassador to Beijing, rejected US proposals to take the issue to the United Nations. "We will never participate in any form of international talks" on our nuclear programs, he told reporters. The US wants the DPRK's compliance with nuclear agreements to be discussed at the United Nations Security Council, which would have the legal power to impose economic sanctions if violations were found.
But the DPRK opposes United Nations involvement and has warned that it would regard sanctions as tantamount to an act of war. "This issue should be solved through bilateral negotiations between the DPRK. and the US," Choe said. The ambassador did not comment directly on new assertions by US intelligence officials that the North was moving stockpiled nuclear fuel rods out of storage, possibly preparing to reprocess them into bomb-grade plutonium. But he did day that the assertion by US officials last fall that the DPRK had admitted to starting a second covert weapons program, involving uranium enrichment, was "a sinister plot invented by the extreme warmongers in the US." (Paul Shin, "NORTH KOREA REJECTS MULTILATERAL TALKS," Seoul, 01/31/03) and the New York Times (Erik Eckholm, "NORTH KOREA PRESSES DEMAND FOR DIRECT TALKS WITH US," Beijing, 01/31/03)
by Jon B. Wolfsthal, January 31, 2003
The current standoff over North Korea's nuclear activities centers on its now active plutonium and uranium enrichment programs. While the discovery of the uranium enrichment development program thrust North Korea's nuclear behavior back into the headlines after an 8 year hiatus, it is Pyongyang's plutonium production infrastructure that is the most advanced, best understood and most capable of producing nuclear weapons.
This paper examines the North Korean plutonium infrastructure and production capabilities, as well as how a freeze over that capability might be reconstituted if an agreement to freeze those activities can be reached. The paper does not pre-judge what form a freeze might take or how it might be negotiated or by whom it will be implemented. This paper is meant to provide a broad view of what hurdles anyone trying to reestablish a freeze
might encounter, given the various scenarios that might unfold...
by Chung-in Moon, Professor of Political Science, Yonsei University, January 31, 2003
"The current structure of confrontation on the Korean peninsula is between Korean peoples of North and South and the United States.... We should counter American imperialists' irrational and conspiratorial war maneuver with unified forces of the Korean people." - New Year Joint Editorial, Nodong Shinmun
"In his quest to win election, Mr. Roh suggested that South Korea may stay on the sidelines if war broke out between the United States and North Korea.... We will not stay where we are not wanted." - Richard Allen
"The big problem we have today is with South Korea. They got this left-wing president in who wants to mediate between the U.S. and North Korea... What I think we ought to do, let them deal with the North Koreans. They think they can. Let's pull those troops out." - Robert Novak...
The Associated Press reported that trains run irregularly and power frequently goes out at factories in the DPRK because of an acute energy shortage, the communist country's official media said Thursday. Operation of trolley buses, streetcars and subway trains in the capital, Pyongyang, are also suffering from the energy shortage, the Korean Central News Agency said. "Frequent stoppage of power supply and unstable voltage debase the quality of goods produced by factories and enterprises and brings difficulties to all sectors of the national economy," it said. Trains stop at "irregular intervals" and cause an "interminable vicious cycle" by impeding the transportation of coal to power plants, the report said. "Restaurants, bathhouses and other public services cannot satisfy people's demand," it said. "The limited power supply to residential quarters interferes with the people's cultural and emotional life." The North has acknowledged its energy woes in the past, but Thursday's report was the most extensive description of the shortage since tensions over its nuclear weapons program began to rise in October. ("NORTH KOREA ACKNOWLEDGES 'ACUTE' ENERGY SHORTAGE," Seoul, 01/30/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK's foreign ministry has described US President George W Bush's State of the Union address as an "undisguised declaration of aggression". Bush was also described as a "shameless charlatan" in the DPRK's first official response to Bush's speech on Tuesday. In its statement, the DPRK said: "The reckless remarks made by Bush in his official speech dealing with the year's national policy cannot but reflect the stand and policy of the present US administration. "This policy speech is, in essence, an undisguised declaration of aggression to topple our system." The DPRK continues to deny that it has a weapons program, and has criticized the US for failing to live up to its side of the 1994 agreement. On Thursday, however, the DPRK also reiterated its demand for negotiations with the United States on a non-aggression pact. (Sang-Huh Choe, "NORTH KOREA CALLS BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH 'DECLARATION OF AGGRESSION,'" Seoul, 01/30/03) and the Associated Press (Sang-Huh Choe, "NORTH KOREA CRITICIZES BUSH SPEECH," Seoul, 01/30/03) and the Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA LAMBASTS 'CHARLATAN' BUSH," 01/30/03)
The Associated Press reported that the ROK's main opposition party asked the outgoing president Thursday to answer allegations that his government "bought" a summit with the DPRK that helped the Kim win the Nobel Peace Prize. The demand came as auditors disclosed that a business group used $186 million from a government bank for projects related to the DPRK. The opposition Grand National Party has long claimed that President Kim Dae-jung and Hyundai used the money as a payoff to "buy" DPRK leader Kim Jong Il's attendance at the historic summit in 2000. Hyundai has previously denied that the $186 million went to DPRK.
The company did not immediately return a phone call seeking a comment to Thursday's report. But Kim, who leaves office in late February, said no criminal investigation into the matter should take place. "If the money was spent on promoting South-North economic cooperation, it is not desirable to make it a subject of judicial judgment for the sake of national interests," Kim was quoted as saying by his spokeswoman, Park Sun-sook. "This proves that this government's biggest achievement, the June 15 South-North summit, was bought with money," opposition party spokesman Park Jong-hee said in a statement. "President Kim must explain before the public the suspicion about a behind-the-scene deal with North Korea and apologize," he said. Kim has denied any detailed knowledge of Hyundai's dealings with the DPRK.
The opposition party denounced the audit as a cover-up and demanded a parliamentary probe or an investigation by an independent counsel. "President Kim must disclose details of all secret dealings related to the summit, including the total amount of money handed over, and take political and legal responsibility," it said. The party first alleged a payoff to the DPRK last year. It said all or part of $330 million drawn by Hyundai in loans from the state-run Korea Development Bank might have gone to the DPRK. The company was in deep financial trouble when it received the loans. It later paid back the money after its finances improved. (Jae-Suk Yoo, "SOUTH KOREAN OPPOSITION PARTY DEMANDS PROBE," Seoul, 01/30/03)
The Associated Press reported that the ROK has gone on a full-throttle diplomatic offensive to engage the DPRK in meaningful talks and earn a central role in negotiating an end to nuclear tensions. Judging from the results so far, it won't be easy. ROK envoys bearing a letter from President Kim Dae-jung returned from Pyongyang on Wednesday after failing to win an expected meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. Last week, high-profile talks between the two sides in Seoul ended with a joint declaration, but without a DPRK commitment on specific steps to resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons development. The ROK vowed on Wednesday to keep trying. "The fundamental solution of the nuclear issue can be achieved only when the country suspected of building nuclear weapons doesn't feel any security threats and builds relationships of trust with other countries," said ROK presidential envoy Lim Dong-won.
Still, the obstacles are many for the ROK to take a pivotal role in persuading the DPRK to abandon nuclear programs that the US says are aimed at producing atomic weapons. Foremost among them is the insistence by North Korea that the nuclear dispute is between the DPRK and the US, and only direct talks with the US will resolve it. "If the North Koreans say, `Yes, yes, yes, but we want to talk to your boss' - basically, the United States - it can become very frustrating for the South Koreans," said Victor Cha, a Korean specialist at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington. (Joseph Coleman, "SOUTH KOREA STRUGGLES WITH DIPLOMATIC ROLE," Seoul, 01/30/03)
by Mitchell B. Reiss, Dean of International Affairs College of William & Mary Williamsburg, Virginia, January 30, 2003
North Korea exists to make every American administration look foolish. We have a hard time understanding how this insignificant 3rd world backwater, the last outpost of the Cold War, can consistently thwart the will of the world's only superpower. A large reason is that we simply do not understand North Korea very well. As Ambassador Donald Gregg has said, "North Korea is the longest running intelligence failure in U.S. history." We simply do not have a very good understanding of how decisions are made, who makes them and why.
A recent example of U.S. miscalculation: press reports stating that Bush administration officials were surprised at how North Korea has reacted to our confronting them over evidence of an enriched uranium program. Two earlier examples: (1) predictions that Kim Jong-il would not long survive in power after his father's death and (2) North Korea's August 1998 launch of a three-stage ballistic missile...
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK launched a sustained verbal attack on the US after President George W. Bush called on the DPRK to abandon its nuclear ambitions or face further isolation and poverty. The DPRK's official media said the US was adopting the tactics of a serpent and wanted to crush DPRK and swallow it whole. However, DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il was more conciliatory and, in response to a private request from ROK President Kim Dae-Jung, offered to give the matter serious consideration, according to a ROK official. Bush's State of the Union call for a peaceful resolution to the standoff was welcomed in the ROK though officials recognized it offered nothing new. The DPRK made no direct response but the official Korean Central News Agency cranked out a stream of anti-Washington attacks. DPRK official media indicated there was no shift in the DPRK's demands for a resolution to the crisis and that it was still insisting on a non-aggression pact and other guarantees from the US. (Sang-Huh Choe, "NORTH KOREA ACCUSES US OF SNAKE-LIKE STRATEGY AFTER STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH," Seoul, 01/29/03) and the Agence France-Presse ("ANGRY NORTH KOREA HITS BACK AT US AFTER BUSH SPEECH ON NUKE CRISIS," 01/29/03)
The Korean Central News Agency of DPRK carried the following response to the US State of the Union Address: Shortly ago, US President Bush said that the US has a willingness to negotiate with North Korea. And he was followed by the state secretary and a spokesman for the White House who paid lip-service to a dialogue with North Korea. They said that North Korea would receive such benefits as energy support and food aid only if it dismantled its "nuclear weapons program". This only indicates that there is no change in the US stand that the US will have a dialogue with the DPRK only after it scraps its "nuclear weapons program", says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary.
It continues: The US much ballyhooed energy support and food aid are nothing but bait to force the DPRK to disarm itself. As a nuclear war against the DPRK is made a fait accompli in the US it is now loudly talking about a dialogue with the DPRK in a bid to cover up its criminal aim. This compels the DPRK to be highly vigilant against the US cynical call for dialogue. The DPRK already clarified that it has an idea to settle the nuclear issue through direct negotiations with the US on condition that it recognizes the DPRK's sovereignty, assures the DPRK of non-aggression and does not stand in the way of its economic development. The DPRK's principled stand that the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be settled through bilateral negotiations between the DPRK and the US remains unchanged. The US should stop paying lip-service to dialogue and its anachronistic offensive to stifle the DPRK by nukes and do what it should do for a fair and peaceful solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. ("US LOUDMOUTHED DIALOGUE FLAILED," Pyongyang, 01/29/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK demanded Wednesday that the US withdraws all its nuclear weapons from the ROK-- an action the US says it carried out 12 years ago. The demand appeared to be the latest attempt to portray the US as the real military threat in the crisis over the DPRK's nuclear weapons program. "The US should immediately withdraw nuclear weapons from South Korea," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said quoting state newspapers. "South Korea has turned into the biggest nuclear arsenal in the Far East and a nuclear attack base as over 1,000 US-made nukes are deployed there," it said. In September 1991, then US President George Bush announced the withdrawal of all US tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad, including about 100 based in the ROK. The DPRK never publicly acknowledged the move, but the withdrawal did help pave the way for the December 1991 South-North Joint Declaration on the De-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. ("NORTH KOREA DEMANDS US WITHDRAWS NUKES FROM PENINSULA," Seoul, 01/29/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK accused the US on Tuesday of planning a massive attack on the DPRK even as the DPRK hosted an ROK presidential envoy trying to calm nuclear tensions. In an 800-word commentary against the US, the DPRK KCNA news agency said the US State Department was making "a final examination" of an attack plan that US forces - with help of the ROK military - could carry out hours after receiving the order. "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is deteriorating so rapidly that an armed clash may break out quite contrary to the desire of the DPRK for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue," the report said. The DPR also said it was prepared to answer the threat of an attack with "the unlimited use of means." ("Joseph Coleman, "NORTH KOREA WARNS OF 'ARMED CLASH' WHILE HOSTING SOUTH KOREAN ENVOY," Seoul, 01/28/03) and the Associated Press (Paul Shin, "NORTH KOREA FRETS OVER US 'ARMED CLASH,'" Seoul, 01/28/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK on Tuesday accused the US of planning a massive military attack against the DPRK, and said the situation on the Korean Peninsula was "deteriorating rapidly." The DPRK news agency KCNA said the US State Department was making "a final examination" of an attack plan that US forces could carry out only a few hours after receiving the order. The US forces in the ROK and the ROK military have put together a contingency plan to invade the DPRK and are preparing to put it into action, KCNA said. The plan includes attacks against the DPRK's nuclear facilities, the report said. "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is deteriorating so rapidly that an armed clash may break out quite contrary to the desire of the DPRK for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue," the report said. ("NORTH KOREA ACCUSES US OF PREPARING SURPRISE ATTACK," Seoul, 01/28/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK has insisted that only talks with the US can solve a nuclear standoff and rejected involving other countries, according to a Pyongyang statement carried by Russian news agency Interfax Tuesday. "We consistently stand against all and any attempt to internationalise the nuclear question on the Korean peninsula, and...we will not participate in multilateral talks in any way," said the DPRK Foreign Ministry statement. "The one and only way to achieve a peaceful and just solution to the Korean nuclear issue is direct talks on equal terms between DPRK and the US. There can be no other way." The DPRK has consistently said it will talk only to the US and is demanding it sign a non-aggression pact. US officials say it would be difficult to offer such a treaty, which would need Senate ratification. ("REPORT: NORTH KOREA REJECTS MULTILATERAL TALKS," Moscow, 01/28/03)
The Washington Post reported that six months after the DPR announced unprecedented wage and price increases to jump-start its economy, runaway inflation is emptying millions of pocketbooks and bottlenecks in production are causing widespread shortages, according to PRC and DPRK and ROK sources. The black market price of rice has jumped more than 50 percent over the past three months in most parts of the country while tripling in others, according to DPRK and PRC businessmen and Western aid agency workers. Some factories in poorer parts of the country, such as the heavily industrialized east coast, have stopped paying workers the higher salaries that were a cornerstone of the reforms, recent DPRK arrivals to the PRC said. Others have taken to paying workers with coupons that can be exchanged for goods, they said, but there are no goods in the stores to buy.
"Their new economic policy has failed," said Oh Seung Yul, an economist at the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "The hopes that were raised in July are today pretty much dashed." According to PRC sources close to Kim Jong Il, the DPRK has determined that it risks economic collapse without security guarantees and access to international lending institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to which the US holds the keys. "Now the economic situation is more precarious than before the reforms. They can't do this halfway," said Cui Yingjiu, a PRC Korean economist and adviser to the DPRK government. "They risk social chaos and economic collapse." (John Pomfret, "REFORMS TURN DISASTROUS FOR NORTH KOREANS NUCLEAR CRISIS MAY HAVE ROOTS IN ECONOMIC FAILURE," Yanji, China, 01/28/03)
CNN News reported that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il visited troops deployed near the border with the ROK and told them he was confident they would triumph in any war with the US, the DPRK's state news agency said Friday. "Our socialist motherland is sure to win as our soldiers who have grown to be one-match-for-a hundred fighters in the crucible of the arduous revolution are firmly standing guard of the forefront with arms in hands to wipe out the enemy," KCNA quoted Kim as saying during his front-line visit Thursday. KCNA described Kim as "feasting his eyes for a long while on the defense theaters firmly guarded by dependable soldiers" before addressing the troops of the Korean People's Army Unit 230. ("KIM JONG IL: 'WE CAN DEFEAT US,'" Seoul, 01/24/03)
by Seongwhun Cheon, Korea Institute for National Unification, January 24, 2003
Beginning in October 2002, Pyongyang's brazen admission of a secret uranium enrichment program to its recent announcement of its withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), North Korea's accelerated nuclear ambition continues to astonish and befuddle the international community. During this period, North Korea has also obstructed monitoring activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and evicted on-site inspectors from the country. As a result, North Korea could potentially restart once frozen key facilities in a month or two, thereby triggering another crisis on the Korean peninsula.
While seemingly plunging ahead with their nuclear program and nullifying international obligations, the DPRK is also demanding direct negotiations with the United States. North Korea justifies this behavior by blaming the Bush administration for its hostile North Korea policy of labeling it as part of "axis of evil" and targeting it for a nuclear and/or pre-emptive strike...
The Korean Central News Agency issued the following statement: A dangerous situation has been created on the Korean peninsula due to the US vicious hostile policy toward the DPRK, which seriously infringes upon the sovereignty of our nation and the security of the state. The United States instigated the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to adopt another "resolution" against the DPRK on January 6 in the wake of the November 29, 2002 "resolution". In the US-wirepulled "resolutions", the IAEA forced us to abandon the alleged "nuclear programme" immediately in a way of making the verification possible, branding us as a "criminal", in disregard of the essence of the nuclear issue, a product of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK, and our special status that temporarily suspended the effectuation of its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
After the adoption of the "resolution", the director general of the IAEA issued an ultimatum to the effect that this issue would be brought to the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on us if we fail to implement the "resolution" within a few weeks. This shows clearly that the IAEA still acts as the cat's paw and the mouthpiece of the US and that it is being used as an instrument of the US tough stance on the DPRK aimed to disarm us and finally destroy our system through the medium of the NPT. The withdrawal from the NPT is the inevitable measure of self-defence taken to cope with US moves toward stifling the DPRK and the unfair step of the IAEA that toes the line of the US.
Though we withdraw from the NPT, we have no intention to develop nuclear weapons, and at the present stage our nuclear activity is only limited to peaceful purposes including power generation. If the US abandons its hostile policy to strangle us and refrains from nuclear threat, we may substantiate through a special verification between the DPRK and the US that we do not manufacture nuclear weapons. The US and the IAEA can never shirk their responsibility for compelling us to withdraw from the treaty, ignoring our last efforts to settle the nuclear issue in a peaceful way through negotiations. ("DPRK GOVERNMENT DECLARES ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM NPT," 01/23/03)
By Hans Greimel, Associated Press Writer, Thursday, January 23, 2003; 7:48 PM
SEOUL, South Korea –– South and North Korea agreed early Friday to peacefully resolve the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs, according to a joint declaration released after Cabinet-level talks. But South Korea acknowledged it had not been able to draw any compromises from the North over its nuclear programs during the two days of talks in Seoul. In the joint declaration, the two sides said they had "sufficiently exchanged" positions on the nuclear issue and "agreed to actively cooperate to resolve this issue peacefully."
The two sides agreed to hold the next round of talks April 7-10 in Pyongyang and another round of inter-Korean economic talks Feb. 11-14 in Seoul. Both sides also pledged to work toward reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, which has been divided since 1945. In a separate statement, the South Korean negotiators said they had been unable to win any compromises from the North. The South had been pressing the North to state specific steps for settling the international standoff peacefully. "Although we have not been able to draw out a more progressive position on North Korea's nuclear issue, we have sufficiently delivered our and the international community's
concern on the nuclear issue," the negotiators said...
The Associated Press reported the DPRK and the ROK began their first cabinet-level meetings here today since the start of a crisis last fall over the DPRK's nuclear weapons programs. The chief northern delegate, Kim Ryong Song, a senior cabinet minister, struck an upbeat note about the talks, which are scheduled to last four days, saying, "Let's hold our hands together and move forward." Kim's arrival nearly coincided with that of John R. Bolton, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security, who flew here from the PRC, where he had discussed presenting the issue of DPRK nuclear proliferation to the United Nations Security Council. But potentially the most important meeting on the crisis, several regional experts said, took place on Monday in Pyongyang.
There, a special Russian envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Losyukov, presented a three-part resolution plan to the North's leader, Kim Jong Il. The plan would involve guarantees of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, written security guarantees for the DPRK from the US, and a package of relief and economic aid for the DPRK. The Russian diplomacy followed an Australian delegation's effort to press the DPRK on the need to abandon its nuclear weapons program. The Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, told Australia's Nine Network after the delegation's visit: "I'm a little more confident than I was a few days ago because of the messages the delegation has brought back with them. They had pretty constructive talks." (Paul Shin, "SEOUL OFFICIAL: NORTH KOREA SAYS IT HAS NO INTENTION OF MAKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS," Seoul, 01/22/03) and the New York Times (Howard W. French, "NORTH KOREA PLEDGES TO HOLD OFF NUCLEAR ARMS WORK," Seoul, 01/22/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK will resume tests of ballistic missiles if the United Nations Security Council begins discussions on the crisis over the DPRK's nuclear ambitions, diplomatic sources close to the DPRK said Wednesday. And if the US pushes too hard, the DPRK could declare itself a nuclear state, they added. US Deputy Undersecretary of State John Bolton, Washington's top arms control official, told a news conference in Seoul that he expected the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue by the end of the week. "The North would lift its self-imposed moratorium on missile launches if and when the issue is referred to the Security Council," said a source with close ties with the DPRK, adding that an actual test launch would follow soon. "Pyongyang will never cave in to threats and will respond with an even harder line," he said. "But we have to see the true intention behind Bolton's remarks." ("NORTH KOREA TO TEST MISSILES IF UN INVOLVED," Tokyo, 01/22/03)
by Markku Heiskanen, January 22, 2003
In the present tense and threatening situation developing on the Korean peninsula only little attention has been paid to recent positive inter-Korean developments including the reconstruction work on the trans-Korean railway. The reconstruction was started in the South and North Korean sector of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) simultaneously on September 18, 2002, and the demining of the two corridors, western and eastern, was completed in early December. In addition, track laying has been almost completed. In the western corridor only 300 yards separate the two tracks.
The reconnection of the railways in the near future, after half a century, would be an enormous symbolic show to the world of the common will of the two Koreas to continue peaceful economic cooperation in spite of growing international tensions. The reconnection of the trans-Korean railway would be of the utmost importance as a confidence and security building measure on the Korean peninsula. The further connection of the trans-Korean railway with the Eurasian railways networks through Korea's gigantic neighbors China and Russia opens up prospects for the Eurasian railways to become an important multilateral confidence and security resource, not only on the Korean
peninsula but in the whole of Northeast Asia...
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK says it would regard any sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council to curb its nuclear program as an act of war, a special adviser to the secretary-general said Wednesday. After returning from talks in Pyongyang and briefing U.N. chief Kofi Annan, adviser Maurice Strong told reporters that the DPRK made it clear to him that the U.N. Security Council should not take up the issue. "They have even used the expression that they would regard action by the Security Council to impose sanctions or any similar punitive action as an act of war," he said. (Peter James Spielmann, "UN OFFICIAL SAYS NORTH KOREA WOULD REGARD UN SANCTIONS AS AN "ACT OF WAR,"" UN, 01/22/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK urged the ROK on Tuesday to push for a reunification of the divided Korean peninsula and resist "US imperialists." The appeal, made in a commentary carried by the DPRK's state-run Korean Central News Agency, argued that national independence for all Korean people was the best way to defend "peace and security of the country." "The whole nation should have a transparent will for national independence to resolutely reject flunkyism and dependence on foreign forces and smash the US moves for aggression, war and intervention," KCNA reported. "The Koreans can be united firm as one," the commentary said. In a separate report, KCNA warned that the anti-US movement in the ROK was gaining momentum and called it "a main trend in the peninsula." ("NORTH KOREA PUSHES FOR REUNIFICATION OF KOREAN PENINSULA," Seoul, 01/21/03) and Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA CALLS ON SOUTH TO JOIN ANTI-US STRUGGLE," 01/21/03)
The Korea Herald reported that ROK and DPRK opened Monday the first of three sets of bilateral talks scheduled this week as the international community tries to defuse nuclear tension on the Korean Peninsula. ROK officials said ROK will use the inter-Korean talks to encourage DPRK to immediately dismantle its nuclear programs and begin dialogue with US to find a satisfactory solution to the nuclear problem. Red Cross officials from ROK and DPRK began their three-day talks at DPRK's Mt. Geumgang Monday to discuss the next round of reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and the establishment of a permanent reunion post for them. The highlight of ROK-DPRK contacts will come today when they hold the ministerial talks in Seoul. This is the highest-level negotiations between the two sides since DPRK announced its decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities and withdraw from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty last month. ROK and DPRK will handle the reconnection of inter-Korean railways and roads at another working-level meeting in Pyongyang Jan. 22 to 25. (Seo Hyun-jin, "TWO KOREAS OPEN CABINET-LEVEL TALKS TODAY," Seoul, 01/21/03)
Agence France-Presse reported that US officials considered an attack on the DPRK before agreeing to seek a peaceful solution to the ongoing nuclear standoff, according to South Korean president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun. Roh told a conference on Saturday night that there were high-level US discussions about a possible attack on the DPRK when he was elected in December. "When I was elected, the situation was so acute because some US officials, who held considerable responsibility in the administration, talked about the possibility of attacking North Korea," he said.
"I then thought that no matter what differences I might face with the United States, I would stop an attack on North Korea. "Fortunately, opinion in the US started to change to resolving the matter peacefully." Roh, who will take office on February 25, said that the DPRK may opt for security guarantees and economic aid in return for renouncing its nuclear ambitions. "From past actions, North Korea ardently hopes for security guarantees and is aggressive in its push for reform and openness," Roh said, while calling for international efforts to end the country's isolation. ("US CONSIDERED ATTACK ON NORTH KOREA OVER NUKE CRISIS: ROH," 01/19/03)
Agence France-Presse reported that Maurice Strong, special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, after returning from Pyongyang, said Saturday that there is a "serious and ominous" risk that the DPRK nuclear crisis could escalate. "They (North Korea) look to a peaceful resolution, but I have to say my impression of the situation is that it is both encouraging, in the sense that both parties seem to be saying somewhat closely what the other one wants. "And yet they are talking past each other, rather than to each other. "So there is a serious and ominous risk that this crisis could escalate."
Strong, who spent four days in the DPRK, reportedly held talks with the DPRK regime's number two Kim Yong-Nam, according to the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency. He declined to say Saturday who he had met but said the DPRK held "very strong" views on its position in the three-month-old nuclear standoff. "I do think that the DRPK (North Korea) does have a very strong view of its position," he said. "It feels it has been unjustly treated, unjusty accused of abrogating a treaty which they say, and I'm making no value judgement myself, but they say was first abrogated by the United States." ("UN ENVOY SAYS 'OMINOUS' RISK N KOREA CRISIS COULD WORSEN," 01/18/03)
Korean Central News Agency of DPRK carried a story that read that the DPRK's decision to completely withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was entirely attributable to the US hostile policy towards the DPRK and the unwarranted attitude of the International Atomic Energy Agency, its tool. As already known, the DPRK, a non-nuclear state, acceded to the NPT and concluded the safeguards agreement with the IAEA mainly for the purpose of removing the danger of a nuclear war to it. It is well-known fact that the DPRK has been exposed to the constant nuclear threat from the US, the world's biggest possessor of nuclear weapons. But the IAEA has behaved menacingly, repeating the US fiction of the DPRK's "nuclear suspicion" since its signing of safeguards agreement early in 1992.
The IAEA should strictly identify international justice, equality and impartiality with a basic principle governing its activity as it is a UN body tasked to monitor and control the nuclear activities of other countries. Its rules forbid it from using any information provided by a third country for the inspection of nuclear facilities and commit it to protecting the data obtained through the inspection. Nevertheless, it inspected DPRK nuclear facilities not in line with its rules and the safeguards agreement but at the beck and call of the US. There are too many examples to cite of the biased and tricky acts done by it in dealing with the DPRK it is self-evident that the DPRK can no longer remain bound to the NPT and the IAEA now that they are being used for the US moves to stifle the DPRK. The US and the IAEA can not shirk the blame for compelling the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT in disregard of the DPRK's efforts to peacefully solve the "nuclear issue" through negotiations. ("KCNA ON UNJUST BEHAVIOR OF IAEA," 01/17/03)
Reuters reported that the White House on Friday blamed the DPRK for an impasse over arms talks, saying President Bush had made clear his willingness to discuss the DPRK's dismantlement of its nuclear programs. White House spokesman Ari told reporters that the DPRK had chosen to isolate itself from the international community. "We have made plain that we will talk to North Korea about dismantlement of their programs," he said. "North Korea has chosen to develop nuclear weapons, to isolate itself from the world and not to talk to the United States." Fleischer welcomed the ROK's willingness to engage the North under the "sunshine policy." "We continue to support, as President Bush made very clear we support South Korea's sunshine policy in talking to North Korea," he said. Adding to a recent flurry of diplomatic activity, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov arrived in Beijing on Friday en route to Pyongyang, saying he was convinced that given time and "quiet diplomacy," the situation could be resolved peacefully. Bush also has expressed optimism that a peaceful solution can be found. (Patricia Wilson, "US BLAMES NORTH KOREA FOR LACK OF NUCLEAR TALKS," Washington, 01/17/03)
The Associated Press reported that the PRC offered Tuesday to host talks between the US and the DPRK in a bid to end their standoff, and the DPRK warned it was running out of patience with the US, threatening to exercise undefined "options." A vaguely worded statement from the DPRK did not specify what options it was considering, but suggested the DPRK was prepared to escalate the crisis over its drive to develop nuclear weapons. The US welcomed the PRC's offer but stopped short of calling the development a breakthrough. Asked whether the PRC's overture was a step toward a solution, spokesman Ari Fleisher said, "That's up to North Korea. We'll find out. We hope so."
President Bush said Tuesday that nations in the region should "bind together" and tell the DPRK that "we expect them to disarm - we expect them not to develop nuclear weapons." If the DPRK does so, then the US would consider new talks about food and energy aid to the impoverished nation. Possible further next steps for the DPRK would include suspending its moratorium on missile tests - as it has threatened - or go ahead with a test. A more extreme option would be to begin developing weapons-grade plutonium at a reprocessing plant that they say is ready for operation. In a push for diplomacy, the PRC Foreign Ministry said it would be willing to negotiate talks in Beijing between the US and the DPRK. (Joseph Coleman, "NORTH KOREA THREATENS TO EXERCISE 'OPTIONS,'" Seoul, 01/14/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK, which says it might resume missile tests, could be ready to test a two-stage rocket capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii with a nuclear weapon-sized payload, according to US defense analysts. US officials say the DPRK is the world's No. 1 proliferator of missile technology, and the threat it poses is one reason why Washington plans to build a limited missile defense system by the end of 2004. US defense expert say the DPRK has one or two nuclear bombs, as well as chemical and biological weapons that can be deployed in warheads. A statement by Ambassador Choe Jin Su followed the DPRK's withdrawal a day earlier from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty read, "Because all agreements have been nullified by the United States side, we believe we cannot go along with the self-imposed missile moratorium any longer," Choe said. DPRK technicians are believed to be working on the more advanced Taepodong-2. US defense experts believe that the missile, if deployed, could deliver a payload of several hundred pounds as far as Alaska or Hawaii, and a lighter payload to the western half of the continental United States. Technical difficulties and economic hardship have hampered the DPRK's missile programs in recent years, and it is unclear whether the Taepodong-2 is ready for testing. If so, it could be done with relatively little warning. (Christopher Torchia, "ANALYSTS: NORTH KOREA DEVELOPING NEW MISSILE," Seoul, 01/14/03)
The Korea Herald reported that DPRK recently announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and threatened to resume missile testing. The DPRK also warned US it could be turned into a "sea of fire." Yet despite these threats, DPRK also proposed holding a ministerial meeting with the ROK, and North Korean envoys held informal talks with a US governor to discuss ways to resolve the nuclear standoff. DPRK's top diplomats have also voiced the need for talks between the two countries.
According to ROK officials and analysts, this two-pronged policy is typical; DPRK raises the stakes while leaving open the possibility of settling pending issues through dialogue. "The North has taken hard-line steps in hope of jockeying for position in talks. In other words, it has a strong desire to have discussions with the United States," said ROK senior government official. He said that although DPRK is playing a game of nuclear brinkmanship, what it wants is not to develop nuclear weapons, but US's "formal guarantee" of its security, or a written statement ensuring there will be no strikes on DPRK.
"To attain this goal, North Korea is mobilizing all its political resources," said the official, who once devised strategies for inter-Korean talks. He was referring to the meeting between US New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and DPRK's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Han Song-ryol over the weekend on the nuclear issue. After three days of talks, the US governor said the Bush administration should open talks with DPRK aimed at negotiating a nonaggression pact to defuse the current tensions. Han reiterated that DPRK has no intention of making nuclear bombs and requested preliminary talks between DPRK and US at the United Nations. (Shin Yong-bae, "NK TAKING DOUBLE APPROACH TOWARD US." Seoul, 01/14/03)
The Washington Post reported that the DPRK today dismissed the Bush administration's recent offer to resume aid if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programs, calling the overtures "nothing but a deceptive drama to mislead the world public opinion." "The US loudmouthed supply of energy and food aid are like a painted cake pie in the sky," the DPRK's Foreign Ministry declared in a statement distributed by the official Korean Central News Agency. The DPRK's rejection of the Bush offer left the administration with few policy options while facing the likely prospect that the DPRK will now resume its recent course of confrontation. On Tuesday, the DPRK issued a veiled and vague threat that it would soon employ "options." Though the DPRK continues to work to reactivate a reactor capable of producing nuclear material that could be used in weapons, the Bush administration has set aside military force as a potential response. The White House has also put aside talk of economic sanctions, recognizing that the PRC opposes that course, rendering it ineffective. (Peter S. Goodman, "NORTH KOREA DISMISSES US OFFER AS 'DECEPTIVE,'" Seoul, 01/16/03)
The Associated Press reported that most DPRK citizens get around on foot because there's little fuel to power vehicles, which lack spare parts. In winter, they often wear overcoats indoors because heating is scarce. The production of coal - a major source of energy - is low because there is not enough electricity to illuminate the mines. Factories that produce fertilizer in a country where food is in desperate need are often idle because of power cuts. By one estimate, the DPRK in rural areas get as little as 10 percent of the power that they had a decade ago. "Without energy, everything stops," said Jean-Jacques Grauhar, head of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in ROK and a regular traveller to the DPRK. "It's really a question of life or death."
The United States has said it would consider energy aid for the DPRK if the dispute over its nuclear weapons development is resolved. A long-term approach could involve the ROK, Japan, Russia and other countries because it would take billions of dollars and many years to fix the DPRK's power system. "There's a lot that can be done across the board," said Timothy Savage, a Northeast Asia security analyst at Kyungnam University in Seoul. On a visit to Seoul this week, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly raised the possibility of energy aid for the DPRK, but he did not offer details about what the US was prepared to offer. (Christopher Torchia, "ENERGY MEANS SURVIVAL FOR NORTH KOREA, WHICH NEEDS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO FIX ITS POWER SYSTEM," Seoul, 01/16/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK on Thursday proposed opening talks next week with the ROK on connecting cross-border railway and roads. The ROK's Red Cross also said negotiators from the DPRK and the ROK would reopen talks next week about more reunions for family members separated when the peninsula was divided in 1945. The inter-Korean talks come amid tension over the DPRK's nuclear weapons development. On Thursday, the DPRK proposed the working-level talks for January 22-25 in Pyongyang, said Kim Jong-ro, spokesman for the ROK's Unification Ministry. The ROK did not immediately respond to the offer. (Soo-Jeong Lee, "NORTH KOREA PROPOSES RECONCILIATION TALKS WITH SOUTH DESPITE NUCLEAR ISSUE," Seoul, 01/16/03)
The Associated Press reported that the US military has spotted increased patrols by DPRK soldiers over the past week in one area of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula, said Lt. Col. Matthew Margotta, who commands a combined battalion of U.S. and South Korean soldiers. But the moves in the 4-kilometer-wide, 241-kilometer-long (2.5-mile-wide, 156-mile-long) DMZ were "not alarming, just unusual," and were probably "triggered by a heightening of tensions," said Margotta. The North Koreans have also occupied a guard tower in the DMZ that hadn't been used in years, he said. (Hans Greimel, "US MILITARY SAYS NORTH KOREA HAS INCREASED PATROLS IN DMZ; US ENVOY IN BEIJING," Panmunjom, 01/15/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK said Wednesday that the United States, the only country to use the atomic bomb in war, bore full responsibility for the spread of nuclear weapons as other nations were only trying to protect themselves. The DPRK said the US was the first country to develop and use atomic bombs and should therefore be the first to disarm. "The world community should place the United States in the dock if it is to bring to justice the true criminal who escalates nuclear proliferation," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary. "It demonstratively showed off its production and use of nuclear weapons and regarded them as a political and military leverage to threaten, blackmail and dominate other countries.
Such moves compelled other countries to competitively step up their nuclear development and, in the long run, triggered off the proliferation of nuclear weapons." The KCNA commentary made no reference to recent U.S. offers to revive a program to give the DPRK food and energy if the impoverished communist state abandons its nuclear weapons. Instead, the state agency blasted the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a "servant of the U.S." for the IAEA's condemnation of Pyongyang steady escalation of nuclear brinkmanship since last month. ("NORTH KOREA SAYS US TO BLAME FOR NUCLEAR SPREAD," Seoul, 01/15/03)
by Gavan McCormack, Australian National University, January 15, 2003
North Korea's January 10, 2003 announcement of withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) created uproar. A "rogue regime," it seems, was defying the world and threatening regional and global order. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave Pyongyang "one last chance" to return to the fold and the UN Security Council began to consider possible sanctions.
Early in 2002, George W. Bush described North Korea as "the world's most dangerous regime." Subsequently he said that he "loathed" its leader, Kim Jong Il, whom he called a "pygmy" and "a spoiled child at the dinner table." Japan's Prime Minister calls North Korea a "disgraceful" country and his chief cabinet secretary says it is "crazy." British, French, German, Russian, Chinese, and other governments demand that Pyongyang rescind its decision. American and Japanese officials fly about the region, and a three-man Australian delegation has gone to Pyongyang, to bring concentrated pressure to bear...
By Shane Green, Sydney Morning Herald's Correspondent in Tokyo, January 14 2003
United States envoy James Kelly has signalled the possibility of help for North Korea with its severe energy crisis if the communist state abandons its nuclear weapons program. "Once we can get beyond nuclear weapons, there may be opportunities with the US, with private investors, with other countries, to help North Korea in the energy area," he told reporters in Seoul. The US Assistant Secretary of State, who yesterday discussed the crisis with the South Korean President-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, also reiterated that the US was willing to talk to North Korea. "I think we're just going to wait and see," he said...
...The crisis seems to be a rerun of 1994, when the US was preparing to strike a North Korean nuclear reactor. The dispute was solved when North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program, in return for oil and help in building two light-water reactors. This time North Korea is looking for energy aid and a formal assurance from the US that it will not launch an attack.
Текст: Ксения Солянская, Gazeta.Ru 13 ЯНВАРЯ 10:50
Ядерная проблема КНДР может быть мирно решена в ближайшее время. Спецпосланник президента США Джеймс Келли объявил о том, что США готовы помочь КНДР в энергетической сфере, если корейцы откажутся от своей ядерной программы. «Если мы справимся с ядерным оружием, вероятна возможность, что США и частные инвесторы, другие страны помогут Северной Корее в энергетической области», – заявил Джеймс Келли после переговоров с президентом Южной Кореи Но Му Хеном. По его словам, Белый дом готов вести переговоры с КНДР по урегулированию возникшего кризиса, но только при условии «ее ответственности перед международным сообществом». «Думаю, нам лучше подождать и
посмотреть», – высказался Келли.
Напомним, в минувшую пятницу Северная Корея объявила о своем выходе из Договора о нераспространении ядерного оружия (ДНЯО). Вслед за тем Пхеньян пригрозил, что любые санкции против Кореи будут расценены как объявление войны, и в ультимативной форме потребовал от США конкретных действий, направленных на улучшение взаимоотношений с КНДР. В противном случае, пригрозил корейский посол в Китае Чое Чжин Су, Пхеньян возобновит испытания баллистических ракет. Представители КНДР подчеркивали, что решение о выходе из ДНЯО может быть пересмотрено в зависимости от готовности США обсуждать энергетические проблемы. Как известно, ядерный шантаж КНДР многие наблюдатели объясняют
катастрофической нехваткой в стране энергоресурсов.
В 1993 году, когда корейцы также угрожали выйти из Договора, Белому дому удалось отговорить Пхеньян, пообещав к 2003 году построить в КНДР АЭС, а до этого регулярно поставлять мазут. Однако ни мазута, ни АЭС Северная Корея до сих пор так и не увидела. На увязку ядерных угроз и энергетического кризиса указывают и заявления официальных лиц КНДР. В понедельник в эфире северокорейского Центрального радио зампред Комитета по атомной энергии Ким Ги подчеркнул, что развитие ядерной энергетики имеет исключительно мирные цели. Вместе с тем, заметил Ким Ги, КНДР не будет сотрудничать с МАГАТЭ, поскольку агентство является «представителем интересов США». Корея устала ждать от
американцев выполнения экономических договоренностей.
По словам высокопоставленного сотрудника северокорейского посольства в Австрии Сон Мун Сана, отвечающего за связи с МАГАТЭ, КНДР готова запустить атомный реактор на экспериментальной атомной электростанции в Йонбене «не через несколько месяцев, а через несколько недель». Руководство МАГАТЭ, которое планирует собраться на экстренное заседание по корейской проблеме, пока никак не прокомментировало заявление корейского дипломата.
Оказывая давление на США, Пхеньян то обещает развивать ядерную энергетику только в мирных целях, то грозит новыми испытаниями баллистических ракет. Правительственная газета «Нодон синмун» сообщила, что корейское руководство предпримет «более жесткие меры» в случае несговорчивости американцев. Никаких разъяснений издание не опубликовало, ограничившись общими словами. Вашингтон, пишет газета, пытается «задушить КНДР» и «препятствовать мирному и справедливому решению ядерной проблемы на Корейском полуострове». Американский спецпосланник уже заявил, что США готовы помочь. Каким будет ответ КНДР, станет ясно в ближайшие несколько дней. Gazeta.Ru 13 ЯНВАРЯ
10:50 in Russian
By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press Writer, Monday, January 13, 2003; 8:27 PM
WASHINGTON –– The Bush administration walked a diplomatic tightrope Monday, talking of energy assistance and other help for North Korea while insisting such tantalizing prospects wouldn't be a prize for Pyongyang's increasing bellicose behaviour. The administration argued this fine point: that talking with North Korea about its willingness to back off its nuclear weapons programs is different from negotiating over what the impoverished nation would get in return. It also asserted that quick and verifiable action was required from North Korea before any would be taken by the United States. "North Korea wants to take the world through its blackmail playbook, and we won't play," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. The communist country withdrew from the landmark Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty last week and has threatened to resume long-range missile tests and to begin reprocessing spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor to make atomic bombs.
The Associated Press, Monday, January 13, 2003; 8:53 PM
TOKYO –– North Korea plans to send a delegation of 51 athletes and officials to the Winter Asian games in Japan, organizers said Tuesday. The isolated communist country competed in October's Asian Games in South Korea. But this will be the first time North Korea has participated in the winter version since 1990, when they were held in Sapporo, Japan. The winter games will be held in February games in Aomori prefecture in northern Japan. North Korean officials had missed the original Dec. 31 deadline for submitting the names of their delegates, but the committee extended the deadline to give them extra time. According to the entry list North Korean officials faxed Monday night, their athletes will compete in short-track speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey events. Organizers of the 5th Winter Asian Games hope to attract 1,200 athletes and delegates from 30 countries. © 2003 The Associated Press
The Washington Post reported that the DPRK today threatened to abandon a moratorium on ballistic missile tests, further escalating a confrontation with its neighbors and the United States one day after withdrawing from a global treaty designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The DPRK's ambassador to the PRC, Choe Jin Su, issued the threat at a news conference in Beijing in which he defended his impoverished nation's right to possess "devices to save us from a nuclear attack" and accused the US of adopting "hostile policies." "The development, test, deployment and export of our missiles entirely belong to our sovereignty," he said. "Because all agreements have been nullified by the United States' side, we believe we cannot go along with the self-imposed missile moratorium any longer."
Meanwhile, DPRK envoys who met with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in Santa Fe complained that they have tried for weeks to arrange talks with the Bush administration but have been constantly rebuffed, people involved in the talks said today. The DPRK deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Han Song Ryol, asked Richardson to set up meetings with the administration to discuss the DPRK's nuclear program, these sources said. Han said that no member of the US mission to the United Nations will talk with any member of the DPRK delegation, although the two countries' UN ambassadors met regularly during the Clinton administration. Richardson passed along the request for dialogue to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. (Peter S. Goodman and Philip P. Pan, "North Korea Threatens to Resume Missile Tests," Seoul, 01/13/03)
China Daily reported that DPRK, locked in a nuclear standoff with US, proposed on January 9 holding regular minister-level talks with ROK on January 21-24, a week after the dates proposed by the ROK. "North Korea sent a telegram today about setting the dates", a ROK minister said, adding that his government was discussing the counterproposal on the ninth cabinet-level meeting since 2000. The ROK on January 6 proposed January 14-7 for the talks, the report said. ("PYONGYANG PROPOSES NEW DATES FOR MEETING", Seoul, 01/10/03, P11)
by Peter Hayes, The Nautilus Institute, January 10, 2003
The Bush Administration is starting to outline a roadmap to the DPRK that would resolve the current crisis. In Seoul, on January 13, United States Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly stated, "Once we get beyond nuclear weapons, there may be opportunities with the U.S., with private investors, with other countries to help North Korea in the energy area."
The Bush Administration's position remains a stringent "no rewards for bad behavior." So how exactly would this work given that the United States won't provide the necessary financial assistance? Can the United States offer energy security to the DPRK (leaving aside the US requirement for negative security assurances) without paying for it? The short answer is "yes" (subject to the absorptive capacity limits of the DPRK itself in institutional and technical terms). There are at least five outstanding priority areas that the United States can mobilize, which other bilateral and multilateral donors could ostensibly finance, that would achieve this outcome...
by Fred McGoldrick, The Nautilus Institute, January 10, 2003
In early October meetings with U.S. representatives, officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) acknowledged the existence of a clandestine centrifuge uranium enrichment program. In December, the DPRK announced that it had decided to restart the 5 Mw reactor at Yongbyong and to resume construction of larger reactors at Taechon at Yongbyong that had been "frozen" under the 1994 U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework. Subsequently the North Koreans removed seals and impeded the functioning of the essential surveillance equipment that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had installed at the various facilities at Yongbyong and expelled the
two remaining IAEA inspectors. On January 10, 2003, the DPRK announced that it was leaving the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
These developments have led to major regional and international concerns and to an urgent search for ways to reduce tensions between the DPRK and the U.S. While the DPRK may be unlikely to agree to move immediately into full compliance with all its nonproliferation obligations, it may as part of a negotiation process agree to a verified freeze of its uranium enrichment program...
Pyongyang, 10 January Juche92 (2003). A dangerous situation where our national sovereignty and our State security are being seriously violated is prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. vicious hostile policy towards the DPRK. The United States instigated the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to adopt another resolution against the DPRK on January 6 in the wake of a similar resolution made on November 29, 2002.
Under its manipulation, the IAEA in those resolutions termed the DPRK "criminal" and demanded it scrap what the U.S. called a nuclear program at once by a way that makes verification possible in disregard of the nature of the nuclear issue, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, and its special status in which it declared a moratorium on its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Following the adoption of the latest resolution, the IAEA director general issued an ultimatum that the agency would bring the matter to the UN Security Council to apply sanctions against the DPRK unless it implements the resolution in a few weeks. This clearly
proves that the IAEA still remains a servant and a spokesman for the U.S. and the NPT is being used as a tool for implementing the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK aimed to disarm it and destroy its system by force.
A particular mention should be made of the fact that the IAEA in the recent resolution kept mum about the U.S. which has grossly violated the NPT and the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework, but urged the DPRK, the victim, to unconditionally accept the U.S. demand for disarmament and forfeit its right to self-defence, and the agency was praised by the U.S. for saying all what the U.S. wanted to do. This glaringly reveals the falsehood and hypocrisy of the signboard of impartiality the IAEA put up.
The DPRK government vehemently rejects and denounces this resolution of the IAEA, considering it as a grave encroachment upon our country's sovereignty and the dignity of the nation. It is none other than the U.S. which wrecks peace and security on the Korean peninsula and drives the situation there to an extremely dangerous phase. After the appearance of the Bush administration, the United States listed the DPRK as part of an "Axis of evil" adopting it as a national policy to oppose its system, and singled out it as a target of pre-emptive nuclear attack, openly declaring a nuclear war.
Systematically violating the DPRK-U.S Agreed Framework, the U.S brought up another nuclear suspicion and stopped the supply of heavy oil, reducing the AF to a dead document. It also answered the DPRK's sincere proposal for the conclusion of the DPRK-U.S. non-aggression treaty and its patient efforts for negotiation with such threats as blockade and military punishment and with such an arrogant attitude as blustering that it may
talk but negotiations are impossible. The U.S. went so far to instigate the IAEA to internationalize its moves to stifle the DPRK, putting its declaration of a war into practice. This has eliminated the last possibility of solving the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful and fair way.
It was due to such nuclear war moves of the U.S. against the DPRK and the partiality of the IAEA that the DPRK was compelled to declare its withdrawal from the NPT in March 1993 when a touch-and-go situation was created on the Korean peninsula. As it has become clear once again that the U. S. persistently seeks to
stifle the DPRK at any cost and the IAEA is used as a tool for executing the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, we can no longer remain bound to the NPT, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon.
Under the grave situation, where our State's supreme interests are most seriously threatened, the DPRK government adopts the following decisions to protect the sovereignty of the country and the nation and their right to existence and dignity. Firstly, the DPRK government declares an automatic and immediate effectuation of its withdrawal from the NPT, on which it unilaterally announced a moratorium as long as it deemed necessary according the June 11, 1993, the DPRK-U.S. Joint Statement, now that the U.S. has unilaterally abandoned its commitments to stop nuclear threat and renounce hostility towards the DPRK in line with the same statement.
Secondly, it declares that the DPRK withdrawing from the NPT is totally free from the binding force of the Safeguards Accord with the IAEA under its Article 3. The withdrawal from the NPT is a legitimate self-defensive measure taken against the U.S. moves to stifle the DPRK and the unreasonable behaviour of the IAEA following the U. S. Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity.
If the U. S. drops its hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and stops its nuclear threat to the DPRK, the DPRK may prove through a separate verification process between the DPRK and the U.S. that it does not make any nuclear weapon. The United States and the IAEA will never evade their responsibility for compelling the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT, in disregard of even its last efforts to seek a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue.
By GREGORY CLARK, The Japan Times, 10 January 2003
Western and Japanese reactions to North Korea's recent nuclear activities and warnings have been strange. Pyongyang makes it clear that its main aim is to get a nonaggression treaty with the United States and to revive the dialogue for normalization of relations that was promised in 1994. In that year Pyongyang agreed to mothball its plans for a plutonium-based nuclear-power facility, in exchange for the dialogue and for U.S. cooperation in providing a light-water reactor-based nuclear-power facility.
U.S. foot-dragging on both issues, especially since the arrival of the Bush administration, would normally mean a return to the pre-1994 situation. Pyongyang's gradual escalation of its nuclear announcements would normally be seen as steps to put pressure on the U.S. to go back to the 1994 promises. But the reaction in the West and Japan has not been normal. Each escalation is denounced as unacceptable nuclear blackmail and further proof of Pyongyang's irrationality...
BBC News reported DPRK ambassador Pak Gil-yon Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations said the decision to scrap its commitment not to spread nuclear technology was a "product of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK [North Korea]". But if the US dropped that approach, Pak Gil-yon said, his country would allow the US to verify its claim that it is not producing nuclear weapons. A White House spokesman said that the "ball was in North Korea's court" to defuse the crisis, adding that "bad behavior" would not be rewarded. But the UN has said the DPRK must be given assurances that it would get something in return for good behavior. The DPRK's withdrawal, announced on Friday, has unleashed a storm of international outrage, with US President George W Bush saying it was a "concern to the entire international community."
At a news conference at the UN, Pak said the UN nuclear agency - the IAEA which had been inspecting his country's nuclear plants - was being manipulated by the US. "The IAEA remains a spokesman for the United States and the NPT is being used as a tool for implementing the US hostile policy to the DPRK," he said. "The US wrecks peace and security on the Korean peninsula," he said. Pak said the withdrawal from the treaty was an act of "self-defence" in the face of the US approach, as well as a response to the "unreasonable behavior" of the IAEA. He said the DPRK did not intend to produce nuclear weapons, adding its nuclear activities were confined to "peaceful purposes" such as the production of electricity. But, leaving the door open for negotiations, he said that if there was a change of tune from the US, the DPRK would be prepared to prove to the US - though not the UN - that it does not make nuclear weapons. ("NORTH KOREA BLAMES US FOR TREATY WITHDRAWAL," 01/10/03)
The Washington Post reported that the DPRK announced its immediate withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty but said it may reverse its decision if the US agreed to resume oil supplies. The DPRK's latest act of brinkmanship came as senior regime officials held talks on its standoff with the US with a close ally of former US President Bill Clinton. It also followed comments by ROK president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun expressing confidence that the regime in the DPRK would not "opt for suicide" by pushing its dispute with the US over the edge. "The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in a statement today declared its withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and its total freedom from the binding force of the safeguards accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said.
"The DPRK government vehemently rejected the January 6 'resolution' of the IAEA, considering it as a grave encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and the dignity of the Korean nation. "As it has become clear once again that the US persistently seeks to stifle the DPRK at any cost and the IAEA is used as a tool for executing the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, we can no longer remain bound to the NPT." The DPRK also pledged that it had no intention of producing nuclear weapons and said it could allow the US to "verify" that it had not produced any weapons if it dropped its "hostile policy". "Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," the statement added. (Peter S. Goodman, "NORTH KOREA QUITS NUCLEAR ARMS TREATY," Seoul, 01/10/03) and The Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA WITHDRAWS FROM NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY," 01/10/03)
By Christopher Torchia, Associated Press Writer, Thursday, January 9, 2003; 11:42 PM
SEOUL, South Korea –– North Korea withdrew from the global nuclear arms control treaty on Friday, but said it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons "at this stage." The North Korean action was likely to heighten tension over North Korea's nuclear development as the United States and its allies seek a diplomatic solution to the problem. There was no immediate U.S. comment.
"We can no longer remain bound to the NPT, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon," the North Korean government said in a statement carried on KCNA, its official news agency. "Though we pull out of (the treaty) the we have no intention of producing nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," KCNA said...
Joongang Ilbo reported that the World Food Program repeated its calls Tuesday for food aid for DPRK. The UN agency said it needs 80,000 tons of grain immediately to avoid a new crisis. At a press briefing in Geneva, Christiane Berthiaume, the World Food Program spokeswoman, said the agency has received pledges of only 35,000 tons of food for the first quarter of this year, less than one-third of the food it needs to keep starvation at bay. Unless new aid is provided, the agency said, it would have to cut back its programs for the second time since September. The World Food Program said it had failed to attract its food aid quota for DPRK last year for the first time since it began working in DPRK in 1995. ("UN GROUP AGAIN CALLS FOR FOOD AID TO NORTH," Seoul, 01/09/03)
Chosun Ilbo. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced Tuesday that a total of 69 flights occurred between DPRK and ROK last year, a fivefold increase from 2001. The number of inter-Korean flights has shown a drastic increase after the inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000. DPRK's Air Koryo flew the inter-Korean air route 32 times, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, 30 times and there were seven special flights carrying envoys such as Lim Dong-won and James Kelly. 55 of the inter-Korean flights traveled via the Yellow Sea and 14 flights that carried members of the Busan Asian Games and Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) used a route crossing the East Sea. (Lee Wi-ja, "INTER KOREAN FLIGHTS INCREASE FIVE-FOLD," Seoul, 01/08/03)
By Phar Kim Beng, 8 January 2003
HONG KONG - The decision of Pyongyang to resume its uranium-enrichment program has raised fears of a nuclear crisis in East Asia, the first since the end of World War II. Ripples are felt most acutely in the epicenter of the crisis, Northeast Asia. Within Southeast Asia, the fear is that if the crisis persists, the very shallowness of the ASEAN Regional Forum will be exposed. The attendant horror in Japan is the specter of North Korea aiming, indeed even lobbing, nuclear-tipped missiles into Japan's major cities. South Korea, on the other hand, is afraid of losing its conventional military leverage against its northern communist foe. This nuclear crisis also has another spillover effect, in that if is allowed to drag on, it will complicate the already difficult process of engagement proposed by Seoul...
By Gary LaMoshi, 8 January 2003
HONG KONG - While the administration of US President George W Bush blandly assures all that it can handle nuclear-armed North Korea through diplomacy, it refuses to deploy the best diplomatic tool, direct talks. Ignoring the apparent non sequitur, the position also betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of Asian cultures, one that has plagued US policy in the region for decades. The Bush people don't want to be drawn into negotiations with North Korea because they don't want to reward that rogue regime for bad behavior. Their newly unveiled policy of "tailored containment" would be laughable if the situation weren't so serious...
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK said on Tuesday economic sanctions over its atomic program would mean war as the UN nuclear agency said the DPRK had "only a matter of weeks" to readmit inspectors expelled last week. In Washington, US, Japanese and ROK officials began a meeting on how to deal with the DPRK's nuclear threat. The DPRK's KCNA news agency denounced the brief seizure last month of a shipload of DPRK scud missiles bound for Yemen, calling it "part of the US-tailored containment strategy against the DPRK. "The strategy means total economic sanctions aimed at isolating and stifling the DPRK," the agency said on Tuesday. "Sanctions mean a war and the war knows no mercy. The US should opt for dialogue with the DPRK, not for war, clearly aware that it will have to pay a very high price for such reckless acts," KCNA added. (Hans Greimel, "DEFIANT NORTH KOREA SAYS 'SANCTIONS MEAN A WAR' AS WORLD STEPS UP DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS," Seoul, 01/07/03) and Reuters (Paul Eckert and Arshad Mohammed, "NORTH KOREA SAYS SANCTIONS MEAN WAR, URGES US TALKS," Seoul/Washington, 01/07/03)
By Jim Lobe, 7 January 2003
WASHINGTON - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein must be green with envy. Not only has North Korean President Kim Jong-il eclipsed him in the US mass media, but his fellow evil-doer in the infamous "axis of evil" is also defying the world's dominant power on a daily basis, and getting away with it. After all, dozens of United Nations weapons inspectors are crawling all over Iraq without the slightest hindrance, scouring the country for evidence of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Despite such cooperation, US President George W Bush threatens war to "liberate" Baghdad virtually every day. How does this square with his kid-gloves treatment of Pyongyang, which Washington believes already has chemical, biological and as many as two nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them as far away as Japan and even Hawaii?..
China Daily reported that DPRK on January 3 called for dialogue with US with no preconditions to seek a peaceful solution to the issue of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. Choe Jin-su, the DPRK ambassador to PRC, told a Beijing press conference on January 3 that US's "aggressive and threatening" actions prompted DPRK to unfreeze its graphite-moderated reactors and related facilities. The ambassador criticized US labeling of DPRK as part of an "axis of evil," listing of the DPRK as a target of US pre-emptive nuclear attacks, and its abnegation of the DPRK-US agreement framework by suspending the supply of fuel oil to the DPRK. Urging US to provide a security guarantee to DPRK, Choe said that the issue should be solved only by the DPRK and the US. Choe also stressed that outside mediators should urge US to give DPRK a security guarantee. Choe's remarks were regarded as a response to Bush's comments on January 2 that the Korean nuclear issue should be solved peacefully, said the report. (Chen Xiao, "DPRK URGES TALKS WITH NO CONDITIONS", 01/04-05/03, P1)
By Marc Erikson, 3 January 2003
It's odd, isn't it? North Korea probably has at least a couple of nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles to deliver them to the South and to Japan, perhaps even to Alaska. Iraq most likely doesn't have nukes - unless some bandits of a former Soviet republic sold it some. Why then, as none other than Saddam Hussein has noted, is the United States on Iraq's case and threatening and preparing for military action against it while it wants to resolve the nuclear row with self-admitted nuke constructor North Korea by diplomatic means?..
China Daily reported that the DPRK vowed on January 1 to build up military power in the coming year as US President George W. Bush said the escalating nuclear crisis could be solved peacefully. Bush said a solution to the crisis with the state Washington views as part of an "axis of evil" could be found through diplomacy, stressing the conflict was not a military showdown. Bush's comment came as the DPRK vowed to beef up military strength in the coming year in a joint New Year editorial. Describing 2002 as the year for "hard struggle," the editorial urged DPRK people to keep themselves ready for their fight against "invasion to the last". Although UN decided to monitor the DPRK's activities, the DPRK's ambassador to Moscow warned his government could no longer honor the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because the US had threatened it with "a preventative nuclear strike". US policy towards DPRK has been criticized by the ROK President-elect Roh Moo-Hyun, who said on December 31 that US moves to punish DPRK with economic sanctions over its nuclear ambitions could spell disaster for his own country. A top ROK envoy arrived in PRC on January 1 as part of diplomatic moves to avert a showdown over DPRK's nuclear program, said the report. ("DPRK VOWS TO BUILD UP MILITARY", Seoul, 01/02/03, P12)
EIR January 2002
As the international community struggles to find an appropriate response to North Korea’s moves to restart its nuclear programme, the questions of how key decisions are reached, and who by, have become of paramount importance. The received opinion is that "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il is the omnipotent and omniscient genius responsible for everything - as was his father before him, the DPRK’s founding Great Leader Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang’s ineffable media endlessly praise the greatness of these two. Lesser figures, by contrast, remain in the shadows or shine only with reflected glory: success is due to following the leader loyally. Yet it misleads to take this at face value...
EIR January 2002
The prospect of Kim Jong-il reactivating North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programme is about as alarming as it gets, but there are nevertheless two important mitigating factors that make this crisis slightly less catastrophic, provided miscalculation by either side can be avoided, than would otherwise be the case. The first is that all the evidence suggests that Kim Jong-il remains fully rational and therefore does not wish to bring about his own destruction. The second is that America’s preoccupation with Iraq, even if it has provided Kim with the opportunity for some serious brinkmanship, does mean that US policymaking on Korea is likely to err on the side of caution...
Talks With U.S. Only Way to Ease Conflict Over Nuclear Program, Pyongyang Says
By Peter S. Goodman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Wednesday, January 1, 2003; Page A13
SEOUL, Dec. 31 -- North Korea threatened today to withdraw from the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, the international accord that is the foundation of efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, as the last two U.N. nuclear monitors left the reclusive country following their formal expulsion. According to Russia's Interfax news agency, North Korea's ambassador to Moscow, Pak Ui Chun, claimed that North Korea had been forced to pursue developing nuclear weapons by the United States, which, he asserted, has not only cut off supplies of fuel oil, but is also "threatening us with a preventative nuclear strike"...