DPRK Parliament Supports Stance on Talks: KCNA

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 04, 2003

DPRK Parliament Supports Stance on Talks: KCNA

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) parliament said Wednesday it would take "relevant measures" to support its leadership's decision to reject further talks on the country's nuclear programme and boost its deterrent capability.

The unusual decision by the Supreme People's Assembly echoed a tough Foreign Ministry statement at the weekend on last week's six-way talks in Beijing. But it seemed to contradict comments by the official KCNA news agency this week that Pyongyang still wanted to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

The parliamentary decision said the Beijing talks - which brought together China, Japan, the DPRK, Russia, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States - proved Washington did not want to co-exist peacefully with the DPRK.

It noted that the DPRK Foreign Ministry, with government backing, had said it saw no further point in talks and Pyongyang had no choice but to enhance its deterrent capacity.

"(Parliament) considered as just all the measures taken by the Foreign Ministry upon the authorization of the DPRK Government, supported and approved them and decided to take relevant measures," KCNA quoted parliament as saying. It did not elaborate on those measures.

"I think we should not be swayed by sporadic comments coming out but focus on the bigger picture," ROK Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Jae-sup told reporters in Seoul after meeting Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Wang said many problems remained.

"But with joint effort by all six countries, we can expect continued momentum to build peace," he said. He declined to answer reporters' questions on when more talks would be held.

But the ROK's top presidential security adviser said he expected follow-up talks to take place sooner rather than later in Beijing although he gave no specifics.

"We see it will go well. It is welcomed by all countries," Ra Jong-yil told reporters, referring to the prospect of more discussions. "The end of this month is seen as too early but I expect it to take place at an early date," he said, according to a pool report distributed by the presidential office.

Earlier, the DPRK parliament re-elected leader Kim Jong-il as chairman of the National Defence Commission and said the move underscored Pyongyang's desire to thwart outside attempts to undermine its government.

Kim has been chairman of the commission for a decade.

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