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North Korea Rejects Chinese Nuclear Weapons Proposal
Pyongyang today rejected a Chinese proposal to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 15). North Korean officials said they were not willing end the nation’s nuclear activities without concessions from the United States. China had proposed that North Korea give up activities that could be used to produce nuclear weapon materials, but be allowed the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program. “We will never give up our nuclear” program unless the United States removes its alleged nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong said. “We will just do it our way. For us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute.” Hyun said North Korea would be willing to allow international inspections and co-management of a demanded nuclear reactor to produce electricity. The United States has called talk of a North Korean light-water reactor a “nonstarter.” Nations negotiating with North Korea have offered security guarantees, economic aid and free electricity if Pyongyang agrees to end its nuclear program. North Korea has threatened to boost production of nuclear materials if demands for the reactor are not met. Six-party talks are scheduled to resume tomorrow in Beijing. “I keep my fingers crossed because still nothing is accepted,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev. Early today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks had hit a roadblock. Hill later said that he and North Korean chief delegate Kim Kye Gwan had “good” discussions. “At this point, I don't know where these will lead,” Hill said. “We are still in business” (Alexa Olesen, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Sept. 16). Hill said, however, that the demand for the reactor has stalled the talks, according to Agence France-Presse. “It has been very obvious to us that they are not so much interested in electricity,” he said. “They are not interested in economic assistance, they seem to be interested in a light-water reactor as a sort of trophy” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 16). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the United States is considering freezing North Korean financial assets if there is no progress in the six-nation negotiations in the next five days, Reuters reported. “We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on antiproliferation measures that help to protect us,” Rice said in an interview with the New York Post. “So we're not wholly dependent on negotiations to get this done “The (U.S.) president signed an executive order, if you remember, that freezes assets and some entities that we believe that are engaging in proliferation trade,” she said. “So we'll see, I think in the next five or so days … whether or not they're prepared to make a strategic choice about their nuclear weapons programs ... and that will show us whether we can get a deal” (Reuters/New York Times, Sept. 16). Any agreement on North Korea’s nuclear program must include the normalization of relations between Washington and Pyongyang, said South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, in New York for the U.N. summit. He said he was confident that the standoff could be ended but admitted he was concerned about the situation. “Every time I think about the North Korean nuclear weapons issue, I always pray to God,” he said. “I ask you to do the same” (Olesen, Associated Press, Sept. 16).
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