North Korea Officially Says It Has Nuclear Weapons

On February 10, North Korea publicly admitted for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons, rejecting moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon. The North Korean foreign ministry’s spokesman said, “We are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period until we recognize that there is justification for us to attend the talks.`` He said, “We quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration`s ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North).”

As the spokesman’s remark on the day in fact is a declaration to shatter the framework for the six-nation talks, it is noteworthy to see how its neighbors including the U.S. might respond.

The spokesman argued, “We have patiently watched the second Bush administration’s decision-making process.” He added, “President Bush’s inauguration speech, State-of-the-Union address, and the U.S. Secretary of State Rice’s remarks in the confirmation process confirmed to us that their policy would not go hand in hand with ours.”

He said, “Rather, they declared their final goal to be ‘toppling rogue politics,’ and pinpointed North Korea as their ‘target,’ recklessly saying, if necessary, they would not neglect the possibility of using force.”

He added, “As long as the U.S. has exposed its desire to topple our regime, yielding its nuclear stick, it would be inevitable for us to come up with a measure to increase our nuclear stockpiles in order to protect our ideology and system chosen by our people, and to maintain their freedom and democracy.” He said, “Nuclear weapons will remain our nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances.”

Meanwhile, the South Korean government decided to relate this issue with whether or not inter-Korea talks would resume as North Korea asked for fertilizer aid on January 13 amounting to 500,000 tons (worth 140 billion won).

Unification Minister and Chief Director of the National Security Council, Chung Dong-young, said on the morning of February 7 on a KBS radio show, “The issue of sending fertilizer to North Korea will be talked over once North-South talks resume.”

taewon_ha@donga.com