10 February 2005
White House Report, February 10: North Korea
North Korea pronouncement only deepens its isolation, McClellan says
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said that North Korea’s announcement that it possesses nuclear weapons did not change the framework within which future negotiations would take place.
Speaking on board Air Force One February 10 en route to Raleigh, North Carolina, McClellan said, “We’ve heard this kind of rhetoric from North Korea before. North Korea’s actions and words only deepen their isolation from the international community.”
According to press reports, the North Korean Foreign Ministry announced publicly for the first time January 10 that the nation possesses nuclear weapons. The statement also indicated North Korea’s intent to boycott the Six-Party Talks aimed at ending its nuclear program.
McClellan said the White House did not consider this announcement to be a departure in policy, pointing to North Korea’s violation of a 1994 agreement and noting that the intelligence community had previously stated that it believed North Korea possessed such weapons.
The press secretary said that “North Korea’s neighbors are sending a unified and clear message to North Korea that the way for them to realize better relations and end their isolation is to commit to eliminating their nuclear weapons program and come back to the Six-Party Talks.”
The administration remains “committed to the Six-Party Talks,” he said; “[I]t’s time to talk about how to move forward on that proposal.”
To that end, McClellan affirmed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and members of the administration would remain “in close contact with the other parties in the Six-Party Talks on these issues.”
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=February&x=20050210154230xkelyp0.2157709&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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