North Korea willing to talk, provided US agrees to pact
But a senior Bush administration official in Washington dismissed North Korea’s call for the pact, saying the important question was whether Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear programmes.
“The president (George W Bush) said in South Korea last year that we have no hostile intent, so a non-aggression pact is not the issue. The question is whether they will abandon their nuclear ambitions,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
The United States, however, will look closely at North Korea’s latest remarks, the official said.
The remarks were made by the reclusive communist state’s ambassador to China, Choe Jin-su, who told a news conference the North’s decision to reactivate its nuclear programme was an act of self-defence and denounced Washington as the aggressor.
“Only when both teams sit together can there be a dialogue, and without dialogue, no one can talk about a peaceful solution,” he said, criticising Washington for labelling North Korea as part of an “axis of evil” and accusing the United States of aiming missiles at it.
“If the US legally assures us of security by concluding a non-aggression treaty, the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula will be settled,” he said.
Choe said talks with Washington about how to safeguard the framework governing its nuclear programme had been broken off.
“This issue should be negotiated in the future,” he said. “If time permits, we will discuss with the IAEA.”
Washington, which announced in October the North had admitted to a secret nuclear weapons programme, has said it will not reward bad behaviour by holding talks with the North.
North Korea set off alarm bells around the world by starting to reactivate a nuclear complex, mothballed under a 1994 deal with Washington but capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
Calling for direct talks with Washington and a non-aggression pact, it expelled UN inspectors monitoring the complex and said it would no longer abide by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Diplomatic efforts to bring the North into line gathered pace yesterday with South Korea, which held talks with China on Thursday, sending an envoy to Russia for weekend talks.
“We will ask strongly for the Russian government to take an active role in contacts with North Korea to (persuade it to) come to the table for negotiations that will secure a peaceful resolution of the current situation,” an official at the South Korean embassy in Moscow said.
