US rejects N. Korea's demand for nuclear status
Source: Agencies |
April 24, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NORTH Korea insisted yesterday that it be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, a demand the United States promptly dismissed as "neither realistic nor acceptable."
After weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula, including North Korean threats of nuclear war, Pyongyang has in recent days begun to at least talk about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper rejected as unacceptable the US and South Korean condition that it agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons and suspend missile launches before talks can begin.
"If the DPRK sits at a table with the US, it has to be a dialogue between nuclear weapons states, not one side forcing the other to dismantle nuclear weapons," the newspaper said.
The United States swiftly rejected North Korea's claim of nuclear status, while NATO foreign ministers condemned its pursuit of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs and called for "credible" talks to be held on denuclearization.
"North Korea's demand to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state is neither realistic nor acceptable," Thomas Countryman, US Assistant Secretary for International Security and Non-Proliferation, said in Geneva.
Countryman, who is heading the US delegation to two-week talks on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, told reporters on Monday: "It is important that the world respond calmly but deliberately without changing our emphasis that the goal of the world to which North Korea is committed is a denuclearized Korean peninsula.
"And the more states that make that clear, the greater the chance we have of arriving at exactly that goal," he said.
A White House spokesman said this month North Korea would need to show it was serious about abandoning its nuclear ambitions for talks to be meaningful.
North Korea has a long record of making threats to secure concessions from the United States and South Korea, only to repeat the process later. Both the United States and South Korea have said in recent days that the cycle must cease.
After weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula, including North Korean threats of nuclear war, Pyongyang has in recent days begun to at least talk about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper rejected as unacceptable the US and South Korean condition that it agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons and suspend missile launches before talks can begin.
"If the DPRK sits at a table with the US, it has to be a dialogue between nuclear weapons states, not one side forcing the other to dismantle nuclear weapons," the newspaper said.
The United States swiftly rejected North Korea's claim of nuclear status, while NATO foreign ministers condemned its pursuit of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs and called for "credible" talks to be held on denuclearization.
"North Korea's demand to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state is neither realistic nor acceptable," Thomas Countryman, US Assistant Secretary for International Security and Non-Proliferation, said in Geneva.
Countryman, who is heading the US delegation to two-week talks on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, told reporters on Monday: "It is important that the world respond calmly but deliberately without changing our emphasis that the goal of the world to which North Korea is committed is a denuclearized Korean peninsula.
"And the more states that make that clear, the greater the chance we have of arriving at exactly that goal," he said.
A White House spokesman said this month North Korea would need to show it was serious about abandoning its nuclear ambitions for talks to be meaningful.
North Korea has a long record of making threats to secure concessions from the United States and South Korea, only to repeat the process later. Both the United States and South Korea have said in recent days that the cycle must cease.
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