North Korea wants compo to end nuclear programme
North Korea is willing to abandon efforts to develop nuclear weapons if the United States ends its “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang and agrees its demand for compensation, the North’s envoy said.
He was speaking as six-nation talks on the crisis opened in Beijing.
Efforts by the North to possess atomic arms are “intended to protect ourselves” from the threat of a US nuclear attack, said Kim Gye Gwan, a North Korean vice foreign minister.
“Therefore, if the United States gives up its hostile policy toward us … we are prepared to give up in a transparent way all plans related to nuclear weapons,” he said.
But Pyongyang also demanded that Washington withdraw its call for a complete and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear programme, casting doubt on hopes for a breakthrough in the third round of talks among the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.
Two previous rounds failed to produce major progress, and the chief US envoy this week saw “no particular reason to be optimistic”.
Kim also said the US must accept the North’s demand for aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze.
Washington counters there should be no reward for abandoning a programme North Korea should not have started in the first place.
