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North Korea: Pyongyang Asserts Right to Possess Nuclear Weapons In a rare public statement, North Korea today asserted it is “entitled to possess not only nuclear weapons but any type of weapon more powerful than that” and dismissed a number of international agreements including the 1994 Agreed Framework and the 1991 agreement denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula (see GSN, Oct. 24). The North Korean Foreign Ministry statement blamed the United States for an escalation of nuclear tensions. “As far as the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is concerned, it cropped up as the U.S. has massively stockpiled nuclear weapons in South Korea and its vicinity and threatened the D.P.R.K., a small country, with those weapons for nearly half a century, pursuing a hostile policy toward it in accordance with the strategy for world supremacy,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said. The United States is also to blame for the nullification of the 1994 Agreed Framework, the Foreign Ministry statement said (see GSN, Oct. 17). Under the framework, which was prepared following fears that Pyongyang had begun stockpiling plutonium, North Korea agreed to shutter its plutonium production facilities in exchange for two light-water nuclear reactors. “However, the Bush administration listed the D.P.R.K. as part of the ‘axis of evil’ and a target of the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear strikes,” the statement said. “This was a clear declaration of a war against the D.P.R.K. as it totally nullified the D.P.R.K.-U.S. joint statement and agreed framework.” North Korea charged the United States with violating four articles of the framework — by failing to provide the light-water reactors by 2003, by failing to normalize relations with North Korea, by failing to provide formal assurances against the threat or use of U.S. nuclear weapons and by demanding nuclear inspections without required action on the reactor construction project. U.S. nuclear policy is also to blame for the Joint North-South Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula becoming a “dead document,” North Korea said. That agreement explicitly prohibits North and South Korea from enriching uranium. “In the long run, the Bush administration has adopted it as its policy to make a pre-emptive nuclear strike at the D.P.R.K.,” the statement said. “Such moves, a gross violation of the basic spirit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, reduced the inter-Korean joint declaration on denuclearization to a dead document.” During the U.S.-North Korean summit held in Pyongyang in early October, North Korean officials demanded the right to possess nuclear weapons, as well as “any type of weapon more powerful than that,” to defend itself against the United States — in disregard of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty which North Korea signed in 1985. “Reckless [U.S.] political, economic and military pressure is most seriously threatening the D.P.R.K.’s right to existence, creating a grave situation on the Korean Peninsula. Nobody would be so naive as to think that the D.P.R.K. would sit idle under such situation,” the statement said. “That was why the D.P.R.K. made itself very clear to the special envoy of the U.S. president that the D.P.R.K. was entitled to possess not only nuclear weapon but any type of weapon more powerful than that so as to defend its sovereignty and right to existence from the ever-growing nuclear threat by the U.S,” the statement said. Nonaggression Treaty North Korea today also proposed the development of a nonaggression treaty with the United States to help address “security concerns.” Pyongyang’s proposal, however, is based on three preconditions — U.S. recognition, formal U.S. assurances of nonaggression and a U.S. pledge to “not hinder the economic development of the D.P.R.K.” “The D.P.R.K. considers that it is a reasonable and realistic solution to the nuclear issue to conclude a nonaggression treaty between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S. if the grave situation of the Korean Peninsula is to be bridged over,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said. “If the U.S. legally assures the D.P.R.K. of nonaggression, including the nonuse of nuclear weapons against it by concluding such treaty, the D.P.R.K. will be ready to clear the former of its security concerns” (Mike Nartker, GSN, Oct. 25). U.S. Has Not Abandoned Framework The White House does not yet consider the Agreed Framework “dead” and might still continue some of its provisions, such as the delivery of fuel oil to North Korea, a senior U.S. State Department official said today (see GSN, Oct. 22). “I have not yet used the four-letter word — (and) have no plans to do so, at least at this time,” the State official said. “No decision has been made.” While the White House has no interest in negotiating with North Korea for an end to its nuclear weapons program, the administration has not ruled out dialogue, the State official said. “I’m not ruling out direct contact or direct communications with the North Koreans,” the official said. “If they call us, we’ll listen, and I hope vice versa. But that’s not negotiating” (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Oct. 25). For further information, see:
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