“North Korea Will Abandon Nuclear Development if Conditions Are Met with the U.S.”

North Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Park Gil-yeon (photograph) announced on July 20 that North Korea possesses an extremely powerful nuclear deterrent and that they will abandon the nuclear program once their conditions are met.

Ambassador Park attended the Korean Peninsula Peace Security Forum that three organizations including the “Korea Society” sponsored this day in Washington and emphasized as such while denying the existence of a HEU (High-Enriched Uranium) program through topic presentation and a press conference.

To the question, “Will North Korea test nuclear weapons or declare itself a nuclear state if no progress is made during the six-way talks?” Ambassador Park, who attended with Deputy Ambassador Han Sung-yul, answered, “Although it is true that we possess an extremely powerful nuclear deterrent, this does not indicate whether or not we will make nuclear weapons.”

In addition, Ambassador Park claimed, “The U.S demands us to include HEU in the target for abandonment; however, I want to be clear that North Korea possesses no such program and hence, can not accept the request.”

He stated, “Our ultimate purpose is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” and added, “Distrust and misunderstanding are the biggest restraint from achieving this goal.”

He also added, “As the U.S. and North Korea are still technically (formally) in war, it is not proper of the U.S. to demand dismantlement from North Korea first.”

He demanded abandonment of the U.S. adversity policy towards North Korea along with concluding a peace treaty with the Korean Peninsula and the normalization of relations on the condition of abandoning its nuclear program.

Concerning the third six-way talks on the North Korea nuclear program, he was positive in his evaluation by stating, “It was held under a different atmosphere compared to the first and second talks, while the member countries participated in serious discussion after presenting several proposals.”

He stated, “Nuclear freeze is the first measure in the dismantlement of the nuclear program and should run parallel with compensation,” and added, “An actual compensation must take place and should include cancellation of economic sanctions by the U.S. and energy aid of two million KW.”

On the other hand, concerning the possibility of holding a North-South Korea summit talks within this year, Ambassador Park stated, “I don’t know anything.”

Soon-Taek Kwon maypole@donga.com