DPRK warns of enhancing nuclear deterrent force

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 30, 2003

DPRK warns of enhancing nuclear deterrent force

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will maintain and even enhance its nuclear deterrent force unless the United States drops its hostile policy toward the country, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Although the United States had called for a peaceful solution to the DPRK nuclear issue, and promised to put forward new plans at the next round of the six-party talks, it had not changed its anti-DPRK policy, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the spokesman as saying.

The United States, China, the DPRK, Russia, Japan and South Korea held talks in Beijing last month, during which Pyongyang demanded a non-aggression treaty with Washington in return for the ultimate "de-nuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.

In fact, the United States, strengthened its isolation and containment against the DPRK following the Beijing talks, said the spokesman. This reflected a continued US hostile policy, he added.

The first session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly, which ended on Sept. 3, passed a resolution supporting the DPRK government's stance on the nuclear issue, he said.

"We will take essential measures to maintain and enforce our nuclear deterrent force for preventing nuclear attacks by the United States and safeguarding the peace on and around the Korean Peninsula," said the spokesman.

The DPRK has repeatedly declared that it will have no way but to seek "nuclear deterrent force" if the United States does not abandon its anti-DPRK policy and continues to threaten the DPRK with nuclear weapons.

DPRK calls for non-aggression treaty with US

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged the United States again to dropits hostile policy toward the DPRK and opt for signing a mutual non-aggression treaty.

The DPRK foreign ministry made the call on Monday on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of a mutual defense treaty signed by the United States and South Korea.

Washington and Seoul signed their mutual defense treaty half a century ago under the pretext of "anti-communism," a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"It is the US worry that the conclusion of the non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the United States might reduce the South Korea-US mutual defense treaty, which stipulates the DPRK as a 'principal enemy' to a dead document, " he said.

"It is because of this worry that the United States is talking about such 'written security assurances in the form of Congress resolution' minus legal-binding force or 'collective security assurances' by neighboring countries, persistently refusing to assure the DPRK of non-aggression through a treaty," he added.

The spokesman pointed out that "the United States is foolishly seeking to fish in the troubled waters by maintaining the confrontational structure in the era of the Cold War through the South Korea-US mutual defense treaty."

Such attempt of the United States is "little short of bedeviling the inter-Korean relations that have favorably developed," he said.

Inciting confrontation would only lead to "a physical clash," the spokesman said, warning that the US attempt to perpetuate its military presence in South Korea "would only make the prospect of achieving peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region more dismal."

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