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DPRK Foreign Ministry Dismisses U.S. Proposal

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

    Pyongyang, July 24 (KCNA) -- The "landmark proposal" made by the United States is little worthy to be considered any longer, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, answering a question put by KCNA Saturday as regards the nonsense talked by the U.S. over the proposal made by it at the third round of the six-party talks. He continued:
    High-ranking officials of the Bush administration are busying themselves to create the impression that the ball is in the court of the DPRK. They asserted that they hoped it would understand the meaning of the "landmark proposal" set out by the U.S. at the third round of the six-party talks and make a "strategic calculation" and that they were waiting for response from north Korea.
    Worse still, they "recommended" the DPRK to follow the precedent of Libya, saying if the DPRK scrapped its nuclear weapons program first, it would be given stupendous reward for this.
    . This only reveals the U.S. utter ignorance of the DPRK.
    As already known, the DPRK made a more bold and flexible proposal at the third round of the six-party talks held in June proceeding from its consistent stand to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free. It clarified details of its nuclear freeze, saying that denuclearization is the DPRK's general goal and the freeze is the first starting point leading to the final dismantlement of its nuclear weapons plan.
    The DPRK's proposal for "reward for freeze" has enjoyed widespread support and sympathy not only at the six-party talks but from many countries of the world as it is the most reasonable way for a solution to the issue which reflects the actual situation where there is no confidence between the DPRK and the U.S.
    The U.S., too, paying heed to the DPRK's proposal, said that it would seriously examine it.
    We have closely watched the Bush administration's policy toward the DPRK after the talks, paying attention to the "landmark proposal" made by the U.S. side.
    The study of the recent policy clarified by high-ranking officials of the Bush administration, however, clearly suggests that the U.S. "landmark proposal" was nothing but a sham offer.
    In a word, the U.S. proposal is, in its essence, is a mode of forcing Libya to scrap its nuclear program first, a mode veiled with word "landmark." The U.S. proposal does not reflect at all the principle of "words for words", "action for action" which the U.S. had already promised to observe. Moreover, it says nothing of the U.S. commitment to give up its hostile policy toward the DPRK, a stumbling block lying in the way of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, and specific ways to do so..
    In other words, the U.S. only mentioned the phases whereby to meet its demands for disarming the DPRK and expressed its intention to discuss what it would do only after the DPRK has unilaterally completed the dismantlement of its nuclear program.
    The U.S. is foolish enough to calculate that such mode imposed upon Libya would be accepted by the DPRK, too.
    Moreover, high-ranking officials of the Bush administration are now asserting it is the avowed policy of the U.S. not to give the DPRK any reward for the freeze of its nuclear facilities or for the dismantlement of its nuclear program.
    For the U.S. to avoid direct reward for the DPRK's freeze of its nuclear facilities is little short of destroying the foundation for the settlement of the nuclear issue between the two countries.
    This would make it hard to expect any progress in seeking a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue and further becloud the prospect of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
    All these facts prove once again that the DPRK was right in its judgment that the U.S. remains unchanged in its present stand.
    The DPRK, therefore, considers the U.S. "landmark proposal" to be little worthy to be discussed any longer.
    The goal to denuclearize the Korean peninsula can be achieved only when the U.S. gives up in practice its more than half a century old hostile policy towards the DPRK. In response to the DPRK's clarification of its goal to denuclearize the peninsula, the U.S. should commit itself to give up its hostile policy towards the former, lift the economic sanctions and blockade against it, delist it as a" sponsor of terrorism" and directly take part in the 2 million kw energy compensation as the first phase measure to fulfill the commitment.
    Whether the U.S. takes part in the project to make reward for the DPRK's nuclear freeze or not is the key to the settlement of the nuclear issue.
    It is a daydream for the U.S. to contemplate forcing the DPRK to lay down arms first under the situation where both are in a state of armistice and at war technically.
    It is the most realistic and only way of finding a solution to the nuclear issue to seek a package solution based on the principle of simultaneous actions and build confidence between the DPRK and the U.S. step by step through the realization of the proposal of "reward for freeze," the first phase measure for its implementation.