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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation North Korea pulls out of Six Party working group, August 16, 2004'Spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry on Prospect of Six-Party Talks', Statement from North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, August 16, 2004. Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Monday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the prospect of the 4th round of the six-party talks: As the DPRK has already clarified more than once, the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is the goal the DPRK wants to achieve and its stand to seek a negotiated peaceful solution to the nuclear issue remains unchanged. Hence, the DPRK had paid deep attention to keeping the process of the six-party talks going. In fact, the DPRK sincerely hoped to see the situation surrounding the nuclear issue develop in a positive direction on the principle of "words for words", "action for action" and "reward for freeze" on which the countries concerned agreed after having a discussion on key matters for the first time at the 3rd round of the six-party talks and patiently waited for the U.S. side's response to its flexible proposal. Quite contrary to the DPRK's expectation, the situation is turning unfavorable for the settlement of the issue due to the U.S. unreasonable stand. The U.S. side clarified its policy stance that there can be no reward for the DPRK's freeze of its nuclear facilities and is reasserting CVID, reneging on all the agreements and shared understanding reached at the last talks. The U.S. went the lengths of claiming that a military option has not been completely removed from the table, while asserting that the DPRK's non-existent enriched uranium program and all other nuclear programs should be scrapped and the human rights, missile, conventional armed forces, religious and all other issues should be solved if the DPRK-U.S. relations are to normalize after the settlement of the nuclear issue. The present development stuns and disappoints the DPRK. Given that the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. was spawned by the latter's extremely hostile policy toward the former, the U.S. should begin the work to find a solution to the issue with dropping its hostile policy toward the DPRK. The U.S. persistently pretends not to pursue any hostile policy toward the DPRK but, in actuality, it is getting more undisguised in following the above-said policy. Recently the U.S. House of Representatives adopted the "bill on human rights in north Korea" in a bid to provide a financial and material guarantee for the overthrow of the system in the DPRK and force the third country to carry out it. The Bush administration spearheaded the massive abduction of people from the north and is leading the joint naval exercises according to PSI. It is massively shipping into south Korea latest war equipment worth 13 billion dollars under the pretext of "reduction" of the U.S. forces. What is this if it is not a hostile policy? It is clear that there would be nothing to expect even if the DPRK sits at the negotiating table with the U.S. under the present situation. Now that the process of the six-party talks is retracting from the desired direction due to the U.S. attitude and nothing can be expected from the next round of the talks, it is clear such talks for the form's sake would be helpful to no one. The United States hastily proposed to have a meeting of the working group for the six-party talks in New York when the two sides were having a multilateral exchange of views in New York in the mid- August. This clearly indicates that the U.S. is, in actuality, not interested in making the dialogue fruitful but only seeks to give an impression that it makes efforts to solve the issue. The DPRK could confirm this fact through the long-lasted exchange of views in New York and the DPRK-U.S. contacts. A nuclear freeze is possible and it can lead to the dismantlement of the nuclear program only when the situation develops in the direction of the U.S. dropping hostile acts against the DPRK. On the contrary, these acts are escalating. This prevents the DPRK from freezing its nuclear facilities, much less dismantling its nuclear program. As mentioned above, the U.S. has destroyed itself the foundation for the talks, making it impossible for the DPRK to go to the forthcoming meeting of the working group. The U.S. side is spreading a sheer rumor that the DPRK is delaying the talks in anticipation of the results of the U.S. presidential election. This is profound confusing of right and wrong. This rubbish only betrays the utter ignorance of the DPRK. Who will become a next U.S. president is the Americans' interest. It has nothing to do with the DPRK. It does not read anybody's face. No matter what type new administration emerges in the U.S. the DPRK will settle issues, pursuant to the policy of independence and self-defence, the policy of facing up to the reality and following the prevailing situation under any circumstances. What is urgent at the moment is for the U.S. to clarify its will to participate in the undertaking to make reward and show its willingness to give up in practice its hostile policy towards the DPRK and thus lay down a foundation for negotiations. The DPRK will make sustained efforts for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. And the DPRK is ready to render necessary cooperation to this end. Source: North Korea's official news agency, http://www.kcna.co.jp. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |