|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
North Korea Threatens to Resume Missile Tests
North Korea yesterday indicated it might end its six-year suspension of long-range missile tests, Reuters reported (see GSN, March 2). A report by the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying North Korea was no longer bound by a testing moratorium reached during nonproliferation talks with the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999. “There is now no binding force for us on the moratorium on missile testing,” the Korean-language report said. “We are not legally bound by an international treaty, or anything else on the missile issue.” Pyongyang also demanded an apology for being labeled an “outpost of tyranny” and a member of the “axis of evil” that also included Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. “The U.S. should apologize for [its] above-said remarks and withdraw them, renounce its hostile policy aimed at a regime change in D.P.R.K. and clarify its political willingness to co-exist with D.P.R.K. in peace and show it in practice," the report said. An English-language version of the KCNA report, however, did not mention missile tests and suggested instead North Korea’s potential return to six-party talks on its nuclear program “if the U.S. takes a trustworthy and sincere attitude.” The place for Pyongyang’s request for an apology is nuclear negotiations involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States, said U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. “There is no good reason why all states, including North Korea, shouldn’t return to the six-party talks,” Ereli said. “If they have questions or issues that they want addressed then that’s the place to do it.” “As far as threats to undertake tests or other military activity, that certainly is not helpful and doesn’t serve a useful purpose.” North Korea is likely to agree to resume talks soon, said Japanese government Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, Reuter reported. “We think it is edging closer to being persuaded by other countries,” he said. “I expect a decision to resume the talks will be made shortly” (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, March 3). Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill met at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul today to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 3).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
