Pyongyang Rejects Washington's Demand to Scrap Nuclear Program

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 03, 2002

Pyongyang Rejects Washington's Demand to Scrap Nuclear Program

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Saturday rejected Washington's demand to scrap Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, and blamed the demand for sparking a new clash on the Korean Peninsula.

"It is quite natural for the DPRK to produce various types of weapons by every possible means under the present situation when the DPRK and the United States are in the most hostile relationship," a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK said in an interview with the Korean Central News Agency.

"Is there any need for the DPRK to exert such tremendous efforts for increasing the defense capability and even making special weapons, despite its difficult economic condition, if such hostile relations do not exist between the DPRK and the United States?" the spokesman asked.

The Bush administration alleged in mid-October that the DPRK acknowledged its nuclear weapons program during a trip to Pyongyang on Oct. 3-5 by US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly. It accused Pyongyang of violating an agreed framework on nuclear issues which was signed by the two sides in Geneva in 1994.

Under the agreement, the DPRK would stop its nuclear development program in return for two light water reactors provided by the United States.

On Oct. 25, Pyongyang proposed reaching a non-aggression treatywith Washington to solve the nuclear issue, a proposal which was turned down by the United States. Instead, the US asked Pyongyang to scrap the nuclear program in an "immediate and verifiable" way after consultations with South Korea and Japan.

Accusing Washington of intending to settle the issue to its ownwill, the spokesman said "this once again laid bare the US's brigandish design to disarm and stifle the DPRK." He added that Pyongyang would take stronger counter measures rather than beg for US recognition of the DPRK.

He also said the long-standing confrontation between the DPRK and the United States had deepened as a result of the anti-DPRK policy of the Bush administration.

Japan also failed to secure a clear guarantee from Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear program during the 12th normalization talks that ended in Malaysia on Wednesday.

Since US president George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he has reversed his precedent Bill Clinton's engagement policy towards the DPRK and adopted a harsher line, branding the DPRK an "axis of evil" and a "target of nuclear preemptive attack."

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