Nonaggression Pact Promises North Korea’s Nuclear Abandonment

North Korea might give up it’s nuclear weapon development plan if the U.S. promises not to attack, Morris Strong, the UN special envoy to the North Korea, stated on October 2, referring to the speech of Choi Soo-hun, the foreign minister of North Korea.

Mr. Strong, the North Korea-related problem advisor of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, had a 30-minute conversation with Minister Choi, said, “Minister Choi made it clear that North Korea followed the duty of giving up the nuclear development plan and sticking by the rule of the procession of verification and investigation that has been reached an international agreement.”

“We have finished the re-disposal of the 8,000 used nuclear fuel rods, beefing up nuclear restraint power with plutonium extractions,” North Korea said on the same day through the speech of foreign ministry spokesperson. “North Korea believes that without the nonaggression pact by the U.S., there is only the nuclear development left over that can hold up its security,”, said Mr. Strong.

“North Korea banks upon the denuclearization of the peninsula as the best measure, but the aggressive policy of the U.S. keeps North Korea with its nuclear development,” said the foreign minister, passed on through Mr. Strong.

The minister took a pose for the press when he met up with Mr. Strong but said nothing.

“Do you regard of North Korea’s re-disposal plan of the used nuclear fuel rods, as coming out to jack up its negotiation power?” To this question, Mr. Strong replied, “We should understand that this kind of incident can continuously happen from now on,” indirectly admitting it to have been created for the negotiation.

Although North Korea has continued to assert that it had ended up the re-disposal of the used nuclear fuel rods, but it was the first time that they had made use of the plutonium, released from the disposal, into the weapon development.

U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea has developed one or two nuclear missiles already, with the potential to manufacture another five or six weapons if the 8,000 used rods have been re-disposed of, as North Korea has insisted.

“The discussion between Minister Choi did not touch on the fact of the number of nuclear weapons in North Korea but played up the capacity of North Korea to bring out more weapons,” pointed out Mr. Strong.

Kwan-Hee Hong konihong@donga.com