Colin Powell, “U.S. Will Not Have Direct Negotiations with North Korea”

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell said on October 21, “We will not enter direct negotiations” with North Korea regarding the nuclear programs and added, “No remuneration in any form will be given until the U.S. is positive that North Korea has forfeited its nuclear weapons program.” He spurned any possibility of direct negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea in an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review, an English weekly magazine in Hong Kong, that was published on October 21, saying, “Other nations have as great a responsibility and equity as we do (about the issue with North Korea’s nuclear program.)” He will begin his round of visits to Japan, China, and South Korea on October 23.

He also stressed that the U.S. stands firm on its original principle for complete, verifiable, and irreversible destruction (CVID) of North Korea’s nuclear program. He added, “U.S. intelligence has yet to obtain complete understanding of how far the nuclear program has progressed. There was no further information regarding the issue since we deduced a few years ago that the communist country has one or two nuclear weapons.”

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com