BEIJING - North Korea no longer wants to negotiate with the United States and four other nations in an effort to ease the ongoing standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program, China's state news agency said Saturday.
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing an anonymous North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the official reiterated the communist regime's Feb. 10 decision to indefinitely suspend its participation in six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Those parties are the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan.
Reviving the stalled talks has taken on greater urgency since North Korea's explosive but unconfirmed declaration earlier this month that it has become a nuclear power.
After announcing it had an arsenal, Pyongyang demanded one-on-one meetings with the United States to discuss the nuclear dispute — a move Washington rejected. On Saturday, the North Korean official withdrew that demand.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang no longer was willing to hold direct talks with Washington because of what it described as the United States' alleged persistent attempts to try to topple the communist regime, Xinhua said.
"The DPRK has no justification to take bilateral talks ... on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula with the United States now," Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The comments came as the head of the Chinese Communist Party's international department, Wang Jiarui, met North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, in Pyongyang, said the North's official news agency, KCNA. They had a "friendly conversation," the report said without elaborating.
During his stay, Wang Jiarui plans to meet the country's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, to give a "strong recommendation" that Pyongyang return to the six-party talks, South Korea's Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing
It was not clear how long Wang Jiarui would stay in the North.
North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002. It is not known to have tested an atomic bomb, although international officials have long suspected it has one or two nuclear weapons and could be making more.
The U.N.'s chief nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei, called on North Korea's leader to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to return to his nation, offering in an interview released Saturday to go personally if it would help.
Speaking to Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, ElBaradei said his agency has no concrete information North Korea actually possesses nuclear weapons, although he said Pyongyang has the know-how and enough plutonium to make "at least six to eight bombs."
Washington hopes Beijing — North Korea's last major ally — will use its economic influence on the North to persuade Pyongyang to return to negotiations. China is an indispensable source of fuel and trade for the impoverished North, but Beijing has insisted it has little influence over Kim's regime.
Meanwhile, a North Korean diplomat said in an interview published Saturday that his government has "burned its bridges" behind itself in the escalating nuclear standoff.
Han Sung Ryol, the North's ambassador to the United Nations, said his nation was forced to build nuclear weapons because of plans by Washington for a regime change in North Korea and would never abandon them until the United States promises to end hostility.
"We have no other option but to have nuclear weapons as long as the Americans try to topple our system," South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo quoted Han as saying.
Han also said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's reference to his country as an "outpost of tyranny" during recent U.S. Senate hearings "defines U.S. foreign policy."
"There are two preconditions for our return to the six-party talks," the newspaper quoted Han as saying. "The United States must promise us coexistence and noninterference, and it must make us believe that we can expect concrete results from these talks in making the Korean Peninsula nuclear weapons-free and ending the hostile U.S. policy toward us.
"If the United States withdraws its hostile policy, we will drop our anti-Americanism and befriend it. Then why would we need nuclear weapons?" he was quoted as saying. (Emphasized by Magatsu, Han have a very good point)
China has hosted three inconclusive rounds of six-nation talks since 2003. North Korea refused to attend a fourth round, scheduled for last September, accusing the United States of trying to topple its communist regime.
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear
The official Xinhua News Agency, citing an anonymous North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the official reiterated the communist regime's Feb. 10 decision to indefinitely suspend its participation in six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Those parties are the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan.
Reviving the stalled talks has taken on greater urgency since North Korea's explosive but unconfirmed declaration earlier this month that it has become a nuclear power.
After announcing it had an arsenal, Pyongyang demanded one-on-one meetings with the United States to discuss the nuclear dispute — a move Washington rejected. On Saturday, the North Korean official withdrew that demand.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang no longer was willing to hold direct talks with Washington because of what it described as the United States' alleged persistent attempts to try to topple the communist regime, Xinhua said.
"The DPRK has no justification to take bilateral talks ... on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula with the United States now," Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The comments came as the head of the Chinese Communist Party's international department, Wang Jiarui, met North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, in Pyongyang, said the North's official news agency, KCNA. They had a "friendly conversation," the report said without elaborating.
During his stay, Wang Jiarui plans to meet the country's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, to give a "strong recommendation" that Pyongyang return to the six-party talks, South Korea's Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing
It was not clear how long Wang Jiarui would stay in the North.
North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002. It is not known to have tested an atomic bomb, although international officials have long suspected it has one or two nuclear weapons and could be making more.
The U.N.'s chief nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei, called on North Korea's leader to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to return to his nation, offering in an interview released Saturday to go personally if it would help.
Speaking to Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, ElBaradei said his agency has no concrete information North Korea actually possesses nuclear weapons, although he said Pyongyang has the know-how and enough plutonium to make "at least six to eight bombs."
Washington hopes Beijing — North Korea's last major ally — will use its economic influence on the North to persuade Pyongyang to return to negotiations. China is an indispensable source of fuel and trade for the impoverished North, but Beijing has insisted it has little influence over Kim's regime.
Meanwhile, a North Korean diplomat said in an interview published Saturday that his government has "burned its bridges" behind itself in the escalating nuclear standoff.
Han Sung Ryol, the North's ambassador to the United Nations, said his nation was forced to build nuclear weapons because of plans by Washington for a regime change in North Korea and would never abandon them until the United States promises to end hostility.
"We have no other option but to have nuclear weapons as long as the Americans try to topple our system," South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo quoted Han as saying.
Han also said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's reference to his country as an "outpost of tyranny" during recent U.S. Senate hearings "defines U.S. foreign policy."
"There are two preconditions for our return to the six-party talks," the newspaper quoted Han as saying. "The United States must promise us coexistence and noninterference, and it must make us believe that we can expect concrete results from these talks in making the Korean Peninsula nuclear weapons-free and ending the hostile U.S. policy toward us.
"If the United States withdraws its hostile policy, we will drop our anti-Americanism and befriend it. Then why would we need nuclear weapons?" he was quoted as saying. (Emphasized by Magatsu, Han have a very good point)
China has hosted three inconclusive rounds of six-nation talks since 2003. North Korea refused to attend a fourth round, scheduled for last September, accusing the United States of trying to topple its communist regime.
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear
Maybe!
