October 10, 2006
Japan - Kyodo News - Home Page (English)    

—BBC NEWS VIDEO: Beijing calls for 'punitive but appropriate'
action against North Korea, Oct. 10, 00:02:44


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SEOUL: A North Korean official in Beijing said on Tuesday that the United States, to avoid a situation in which Pyongyang would feel compelled to launch nuclear-tipped missiles, should agree to hold direct talks with his government on security guarantees, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

''Before the unhappy situation arises in which we fire nuclear missiles, we want this situation concluded, and this depends on how the United States acts,'' the official was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.

The official also said his country is, ''willing to abandon nuclear weapons and return to the Six-Party Talks at any time, if the United States takes corresponding measures.''

What Pyongyang wants is its own safety, including ''a guarantee of our regime,'' the official said, speaking a day after Pyongyang said it had conducted an underground nuclear test.

According to Yonhap, the official blasted the United States for refusing to hold bilateral talks with North Korea, saying, ''The United States continues making threats while rejecting calls for dialogue.''

Citing U.S. sanctions imposed on a Macao-based bank suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting U.S. currency, North Korea has demanded bilateral talks while it has boycotted Six-Party Talks last held in November 2005. The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

America's Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said on Tuesday that North Korea's nuclear test made bilateral talks with Pyongyang less likely, according to Yonhap.

''I think you're right that it has become more difficult in the wake of yesterday's events,'' Vershbow said in an interview with South Korean reporters. ''I think in light of what happened yesterday we really have to ask ourselves whether the question of bilateral versus multilateral channels of dialogue was the real problem,'' he is quoted as saying.

Asked why North Korea conducted a nuclear test in defiance of international calls for it to desist, the North Korean official in Beijing said, ''It's our inherent right as an independent, sovereign nation … Politically and diplomatically, we expressed our will to sit face to face across the negotiation table with the United States,'' he said.

Asked whether North Korean relations with its traditional ally China would deteriorate after the test, the official said, ''China would not abandon us. … The starting point from which every nation makes decisions is the pursuit of its national interests.''

China strongly criticized North Korea on Monday, saying its neighbor had ''ignored the universal opposition of the international community'' and ''brazenly'' went ahead with the test, which the Chinese government is ''resolutely opposed to.''

It demanded North Korea live up to its earlier commitment to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, stop any activity that may worsen the current situation and return to the six-party talks on its nuclear programs