North Korea Says It Will No Longer Abandon Nukes Unless South Korea Is Left Unprotected And Obama Is Their Friend
BEIJING, Jan. 13 - (Kyodo)—North Korea said Tuesday it will give up its nuclear weapons only after the “nuclear threat” from the United States is removed and Pyongyang normalizes relations with Washington.
The comments by a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, distributed by the country’s official media, were the country’s first public remarks on its nuclear programs since the latest round of the six- party talks on denuclearizing the country ended without progress in December.
“Our nuclear weapons will become unnecessary when the U.S. nuclear threat is removed and the U.S. nuclear umbrella covering South Korea is no longer in place,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.
The nuclear problem began because of the U.S. nuclear threat against North Korea, the spokesman said, adding, “The logic that relations will be improved if we let go of our nuclear weapons first is upside down.”
The last denuclearization talks broke down due to differences over ways to verify information provided by North Korea about its nuclear programs.
The spokesman repeated North Korea’s position that any verification measures should be applied to the entire Korean Peninsula, when denuclearization is finally realized.
That means allowing measures to check whether U.S. nuclear weapons are not brought into South Korea, too, the spokesman was quoted as saying.
If the nuclear problem is to be solved while the “hostile relations” are still in place, “all nuclear powers must get together and realize nuclear disarmament at the same time,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.
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