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DPRK Rejects US-Selected Topics for Negotiations
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Monday criticized Washington for unilaterally setting out topics for proposed talks with Pyongyang, saying Washington intends to "disarm" the DPRK by doing so.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement that the issue of compensation for electricity shortage caused by the U.S. delay in building promised light-water reactors should be first discussed at the negotiations.
In response to U.S. President George W. Bush's June 6 proposal to resume negotiations with the DPRK, the spokesman said U.S. attempt to set out and make public topics like nuclear, missile and conventional armed forces-related issues even before the two sides sit down, is unacceptable to the DPRK.
"We cannot construe this other than an attempt by the U.S. to disarm the DPRK through negotiations," reads the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
Questioning Washington's sincerity, the spokesman said such dialogues should be conducted on a fair and equal footing.
"We cannot but interpret the U.S. administration's proposal for resuming dialogue as unilateral and conditional in its nature and hostile in its intention," the spokesman said.
"The DPRK's conventional armed forces can never be a subject of discussion before the U.S. forces are pulled out of South Korea," the spokesman said.
The spokesman called for the implementation of the provisions of the 1994 DPRK-U.S. agreed framework and the 2000 DPRK-U.S. Joint Communique, concerning the DPRK's nuclear and missile projects respectively.
"The most realistic and urgent issue at present as regards the implementation of the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework... is to handle in a responsible manner the grave situation where the LWR (light- water reactor) provision is too much delayed," he said.
Under the 1994 Geneva framework agreement between the U.S. and the DPRK, Washington agreed to provide two light water nuclear reactors and heavy oil as fuel energy to the DPRK. In return, the DPRK promised to phase out its graphite reactors capable of producing materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons. But the light-water project has made little progress so far and caused a power shortage to the DPRK.
In a landmark visit to Washington by DPRK leader Kim Jong Il's envoy, Cho Myong Rok, in October 2000, Pyongyang and Washington signed a joint communique in which Pyongyang promised to stop launching long-range missiles while talks on the missile issue continue.
After Bush came to power in January, he shut the door for U.S.- DPRK talks, saying relations with Pyongyang needed an overall review.
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