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North Korea condemns remarks by South Korean President Park

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 1, 2013 6:59AM GMT

North Korea has condemned recent remarks by South Korean President Park Geun-hye about denuclearization of the country.

“Park Geun-hye let loose a whole string of provocative remarks seriously hurting the dignity and social system in the DPRK (North Korea) while visiting China,” the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement issued on Monday.

Park said following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week that South Korea and China “have agreed that under any circumstances, North Korea’s nuclear (weapons) are unacceptable.”

The committee, however, censured the remarks as a “blatant challenge to the dignity, social system and political line of the DPRK and an unpardonable grave provocation against it.”

South Korea has reacted to the North Korean statement, saying, “It is very regrettable.”

Seoul and Beijing said in a joint statement after Park’s four-day visit to China that “Both sides confirmed that denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and keeping peace and stability there were in their common interest, and they agreed to make joint efforts to that end.”

The statement added that the two sides had agreed to take “active efforts to create positive circumstances for the resumption of the six-party talks,” involving North Korea, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, which stalled in 2009 when Pyongyang walked out in protest against a new round of UN sanctions following its nuclear tests.

“We hope all sides seize this opportunity and work together to return to the six-party talks at an early date,” the Chinese president said during his meeting with Park.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric over the past few months.

Last week, North Korea vowed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent in the face of “threats of war” from the United States and a “policy of confrontation” from South Korea.

On June 23, Rodong Sinmun daily, which is run by North Korea’s ruling party, said the United States “can never cover up its true colors as the chief culprit escalating the tensions on the Peninsula in a planned and deliberate way.”

DB/HSN