Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S. and IAEA's Double Standards
Korean Central News Agency of DPRK
Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Wednesday as regards the outcome of a meeting of the Board of Governors of the IAEA on south Korea's nuclear issue:
The meeting held on Nov. 26 discussed south Korea's nuclear issue and expressed concern over its failure to report its nuclear activities to the IAEA. The meeting in a statement of its chairman urged south Korea to pursue cooperation with the IAEA according to the Safeguards Agreement and the supplementary protocol and requested the IAEA director general to properly report about that.
As seen above, the statement gives impression that south Korea's nuclear issue has not been clinched by referring to a follow-up measure for the form's sake. But the nuclear issue of south Korea was all but clinched at the meeting as the U.S. and its ally think fit.
It is by no means fortuitous that the south Korean authorities have broken into shouts of joy over the outcome of the meeting, saying that the attempt to refer the issue of its secret nuclear experiments to the UN Security Council has already gone bust.
The DPRK has already clarified its stand ever since the disclosure of the case that a thorough probe should be made into south Korea's secret nuclear activities as it has laid a stumbling block in the way of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and that Pyongyang is compelled to link the issue to the resumption of the six-party talks supposed to take up the issue of denuclearizing the peninsula.
A scrutiny into the IAEA's course of inspection and the meeting of its Board of Governors prompted us to conclude that the U.S. and the IAEA are going to hush up the secret nuclear-related experiments of south Korea the way they think fit.
The U.S. deliberately downplayed the case, not describing it as a serious issue, and unilaterally handled the issue in its interests even before the announcement of the outcome of the agency's inspection despite the fact that those experiments were made according to the nuclear weapons program pursued by its authorities.
The U.S. attitude toward this case stands out in sharp contrast to its persistent pressure upon the DPRK to admit the non-existent "uranium enrichment program."
This again helped the DPRK to clearly see through the U.S. unilateral double-dealing tactics whereby it judges everything and behaves from the stand of meeting its own interests.
The U.S. has shut its eyes to the secret nuclear activities of south Korea for the reason that it is its ally and made far-fetched assertions about the DPRK for the mere reason that it is in hostile relationship with Washington.
This is the most serious application of its double standards.
The IAEA has not been provided with indispensable conditions for probing the truth about the case during the inspection.
However, the Secretariat of the IAEA protected the accused by every means, talking about the south Korean authorities' "positive cooperation". We can not but feel disgust at it and heighten vigilance against it.
There would be nothing more foolish an act for the DPRK to believe the outcome of inspection conducted by the IAEA running helter-skelter at the manipulation of the super-power and under its pressure, away from the principle of impartiality and participate in the six-party talks aimed at pressurizing the DPRK to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear deterrent.
If the IAEA does not settle the secret nuclear experiments of south Korea in an understandable manner, this issue will stand out as the most important issue at the six-party talks pending a top priority discussion.
It is quite natural for the six party talks to discuss this issue before the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S., taking into consideration the fact that the DPRK is neither IAEA member nor a signatory to the NPT.
Double standards as regards the nuclear issues of the north and the south of Korea can never be allowed under any circumstances and it does not stand to reason that the DPRK alone should work for denuclearization.
It is illogical for the DPRK to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear deterrent force unless the secret nuclear-related experiments of south Korea are thoroughly probed. Under this situation the DPRK is left with no option but to increase its nuclear deterrent force.
This would be beneficial for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and for peace in Asia and the rest of the world.
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