No Thanks for Any Aid with Political Conditions

North Korea`s foreign minister announced that North Korea would not accept any politically conditioned aids in the future, reported the state-run Chosun Central Broadcasting yesterday.

In the interview, the spokesperson for Foreign Ministry criticized, "The United States and its followers have begun to employ more tactics to frame our country. They are trying to abuse humanitarian aids for political purposes." Then, he continued, "In the future, we will wholeheartedly welcome all the purely humanitarian helps from international organizations and donator countries. But we will never accept any aids attached with political conditions."

His remarks clearly verify the intention of the North Korean regime that it will put the first priority on the maintenance of its social system and political power even at cost of a severe shortage of food and electricity, analyze experts.

The spokesperson also said, "On November 19th, the U.N. urged, in a statement, its member countries to help us with food in 2003. In response, the World Food Plan and other international organizations acted positively to the call. The United States, citing unrealistic, unreasonable issues like our army`s use of the food aid, has hindered the efforts of the international community."

He also alleged, "Japan and other US followers are pressuring us. They have connected the humanitarian aid to us with various, unrelated political issues such as the normalization and the nuclear issue. It`s not right."

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com