N Korea says no to UN inspectors
2003-04-10 11:34
Seoul - Communist North Korea indicated on Thursday it had no intention of allowing UN inspectors back into the country as it quietly tore up the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Stalinist regime kicked out inspectors four months ago and served notice a month later that it was pulling out of the international arms control accord that has served as a gatekeeper to nuclear weapons proliferaton for more than three decades.
The withdrawal became effective on Thursday without official comment from North Korea.
Washington says that North Korea has already produced nuclear weapons and admitted in October that it was running a programme based on enriched uranium to produce more, sparking the current nuclear crisis.
The United States has demanded that North Korea scrap its nuclear programmes before dialogue on resolving the crisis can begin.
Without admitting outright that it possessed nuclear weapons, North Korea came close on Thursday when it said allowing nuclear inspections would entail disarmament.
"The US demand for the DPRK's (North Korea's) scrapping of its 'nuclear weapons program before dialogue' would lead to inspection and the resultant disarmament spark a war," Pyonyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
KCNA said that North Korea had learned from the war in Iraq that it was a fatal mistake to bow to inspections as Baghdad had learned to its cost.
"The only way of averting a war is to increase one's own just self-defensive means," KCNA said.
"The Iraqi war launched by the US preemptive attack clearly proves that a war can be prevented and the security of the country and the nation can be ensured only when one has physical deterrent force, a military deterrent force strong enough to decisively repel any attack of the enemy with any types of sophisticated weapons."
In the past North Korea has insisted that its nuclear programmes are for peaceful purposes. Russia Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said Pyongyang should prove it by admitting inspectors.
"It is important for North Korea to allow International Atomatic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, in cooperation with other countries," Ivanov told a news conference in Seoul.
The Russian defence chief, emerging from talks with his South Korean counterpart Cho Young-Kil, also called for a US-North Korean dialogue to "find an exit" from the nuclear impasse.
He was speaking a day after Russia and China blocked a UN security council move to condemn North Korea's suspected weapons drive.
Both countries, North Korea's only allies, argue that UN intervention dubbed a "prelude" to war by Pyongyang could deepen the six-month-old stand-off.
They have urged the United States to engage in direct talks with the Stalinist regime to break the impasse.
Washington has turned down North Korea's demand for a non-aggression pact and one-on-one talks, saying the crisis is a challenge to world security and should be resolved through multilateral talks.
In China, visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan was to hold talks later on Thursday with Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing and was expected to urge Beijing to press Pyongyang to take part in multilateral talks.
As tension mounted over the nuclear crisis, Pyongyang announced its withdrawal on January 10 from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Under terms of the treaty, the 188 member nations have the right to withdraw on three months notice after citing "extraordinary" events that have threatened its national interests.
No country has pulled out of the treaty since its went into effect in 1970. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA