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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation 'Pie In The Sky': North Korea Response To Us Offer of Talks, January 15Statement by spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), January 15. Some high-ranking officials of the US were reported to have said that the US has willingness to have dialogue with the DPRK and discuss the matters of energy and food aid if the latter scraps its "nuclear weapon development program". In this regard, some of the world community have shown impromptu views that the US made a switchover in its position from its stand of denying dialogue and compensation to that of expressing its willingness to do so. But, in essence, there is no change in the US conditional stand that it would have dialogue with the DPRK only after it scraps its "nuclear program". It is clear that the US talk about dialogue is nothing but a deceptive drama to mislead the world public opinion. It has been evidenced by the oft-repeated remarks made by a spokesman for the White House on January 14 that the US would not negotiate with North Korea but would have a dialogue to discuss the issue of urging it to fulfil its commitments. We prudently examined the matter of dialogue raised in the January 7 joint statement of the US, Japan and South Korea for the first time, and made...utmost efforts to have dialogue with the US side. Until the day before the DPRK government's statement was published on January 10 [announcing North Korea's intention to withdraw from the NPT] we seriously dealt with the US "willingness" for dialogue conveyed by a third country and directly got in touch with the US State Department through a New York channel for DPRK-US contacts. However, what we heard from the US side was simple words that the US had nothing to say about the resumption of dialogue. To cite one more example, the US has often said that it would not link the humanitarian matter to the political issue, but, after the nuclear issue was raised, craftily put up such preconditions as opening all parts of the DPRK in a bid to invent a pretext for stopping food aid to the DPRK. By such preconditions the US meant in a word that food aid would be possible only when the DPRK opens its military objects sensitive from the viewpoint of national security to the outside world. As seen above, the US loudmouthed supply of energy and food aid are like a painted cake pie in the sky as they are possible only after the DPRK is totally disarmed. The US assertion that negotiations for conclusion of a non-aggression treaty and economic aid are possible only when the DPRK unilaterally lays down its arms is against common sense as the DPRK and the US are now standing in the most acute military confrontation. It is, in essence, a stand of denying dialogue and negotiations. Such contradictory remarks made by the authorities of the US administration prove that they seek to gain time for some other purpose and, therefrom, resort to false propaganda to fool the DPRK and the world public. It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to settle the issue on an equal footing through fair negotiations that may clear both sides of their concerns. We have already clarified that the DPRK is ready to solve the nuclear issue through negotiations on condition that the US recognizes the DPRK's sovereignty, assures it of non-aggression and does not obstruct its economic development. Nobody will be taken in by any tricks employed by the Bush administration. The US can never evade the blame for the present crisis unless it makes a fundamental switchover in its hostile policy towards the DPRK. Source: DPRK FM spokesman on US rumor about dialogue, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), http://www.kcna.co.jp, January 15. © 2002 The Acronym Institute. |