Nuclear issue on Korean Peninsula should be settled between DPRK and U.S.
KCNA
01/06/2003
Moscow, January 1 (KCNA) -- The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula can never be a matter of international character in any case because it can be settled when the U.S. gives a legal guarantee of security such as the conclusion of a non-aggression treaty with the DPRK. Pak Ui Chun, DPRK Ambassador to Russia, said this at a press conference at the embassy on Dec. 31.
Referring to the Dec. 29 statement of a spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he continued:
The nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, should be settled between the DPRK and the U.S. the issue is recently more complicated by the bush administration that designated the DPRK as part of an "axis of evil" and a target of its forestalling nuclear attacks and ditched the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework with a stop to supplying heavy oil to the DPRK.
The DPRK has warned the U.S. several times and taken counter measures, leaving the door of dialogue open for a peaceful solution of the issue with utmost self-control and patience.
This is evidenced by the DPRK-proposed conclusion of a non-aggression treaty with the U.S.
But the Bush administration is refusing the dialogue and claiming that it can not bring itself to make a legal promise of non-aggression.
The U.S. assertion and loudmouthed grounds do not reflect the will of the international community and nobody has given it the right to represent the international community.
Inspection has been agreed on and carried out on a limited scale between the DPRK and the IAEA, which came according to the agreed framework and DPRK's voluntary and good-intentioned measure to verify the transparency of nuclear activity.
Any country that truly wants a stable situation of the Korean Peninsula should clearly know that the nuclear issue on the peninsula is not a matter of international character described by the U.S. but an issue that should be settled between the DPRK and the U.S. and play a positive role to force the U.S. to come out to the dialogue with the DPRK without precondition.
Then he answered questions put by journalists.
