|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
North Korea II: Pyongyang Never Admitted Nuclear Program, Expert Says By Anne Marie Pecha Reacting to what they perceived as abrupt accusations from U.S. special envoy James Kelly, the officials said only that North Korea has a right to possess nuclear weapons, said Don Oberdorfer, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (see GSN, Nov. 6). Oberdorfer — who visited North Korea earlier this month with Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea — spoke at a nonproliferation conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His remarks echoed a Washington Post commentary that he wrote Nov. 10. The United States has interpreted North Korea’s remarks to be an admission that the country does maintain a nuclear program, U.S. officials said last month (see GSN, Oct. 17). The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for verifying North Korea’s compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, has been more cautious. “We have asked the D.P.R.K. to confirm these reports,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the conference yesterday. “There’s been a lot of speculation as to what they said,” Oberdorfer said of North Korea. “I asked [First Deputy Foreign Minister] Kang Sok Ju — who is the one who delivered the news to Kelly of their position — what exactly did you tell Assistant Secretary Kelly?” Kang pointed out a particular paragraph in an Oct. 25 statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry, according to Oberdorfer. “He said that in that statement it states exactly what he told Kelly,” Oberdorfer said. According to the statement, North Korea asserted its right to possess nuclear weapons, but it neither admitted nor denied possessing them (see GSN, Oct. 25). “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 [sic] 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.,” says the key paragraph, according to the Korean Central News Agency. This latest controversy originated when U.S. diplomats accused North Korea of having started a uranium enrichment program during the late 1990s for use in nuclear weapons, according to Oberdorfer. “The officials never denied seeking to enrich uranium in secret facilities, but portrayed their actions as a response to the Bush administration’s hostility,” he wrote in the commentary. Oberdorfer said he also believes that Pyongyang would now readily give up any secret nuclear efforts if it felt that it could do so peacefully. “I think they’re quite willing to give up this program,” he said yesterday. “I think they have the program. We know they have it. I think that’s why they made the statement that they [made],” he added.
| ||||||||||
Back to top
