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SEOUL, Aug 30: North Korea, in its first official reaction to six-way nuclear talks, said on Saturday it was not interested in more discussions and had no choice but to strengthen its nuclear deterrent, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency said.
The comments are in stark contrast to the agreement announced by China on Friday after three days of talks in Beijing between the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, in which all sides said they would meet again later this year.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the North’s official KCNA news agency the Beijing talks were a trick merely aimed at disarming the communist state, Yonhap reported.
“The talks have made us believe that we have no other choice but to strengthen a nuclear deterrent force as a self-defensive means to defend the sovereignty of the country,” the North’s ministry spokesman said.
“That was a far cry from our expectations and no more than an attempt to disarm us. We are not interested at all in this kind of talks and do not have any hopes (for such talks),” he added in the Korean-language KCNA report.
It was not clear whether the spokesman’s comments signalled a formal change in policy from Friday’s agreement to talk again or was part of Pyongyang’s rhetorical repertoire.
Earlier in Beijing, an unidentified North Korean delegate to the talks made similar remarks to reporters as the North Korean party flew home.
Analysts dismissed the delegate’s comments as posturing by the North, which typically steps up its rhetoric or makes conflicting statements to try to confuse its opponents or win concessions.
The head of the North Korean delegation, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il, made no comment at the airport and looked solemn, in stark contrast to his arrival on Tuesday when he smiled, waved at reporters and clasped his hands above his head.
US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told reporters earlier in the day the talks had been productive but there was a long way to go before the crisis was defused.
SAME OLD BLUSTER?: Pyongyang has frequently used bluster when discussing its nuclear capabilities.
“The contradiction is a manoeuvre and consistent with North Korea’s pattern of behaviour in the past,” said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at the People’s University in Beijing.
Paik Hak-soon, a senior researcher at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, added: “They’re acting strategically to strengthen their starting position for the next round of negotiations.”
“It’s a message to the United States, a reminder that the North still has a card up its sleeves — nuclear development.”
The crisis erupted last October when the United States said North Korea had admitted to a nuclear arms programme. It deepened after the isolated North threw out UN inspectors, pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and took its nuclear plant out of mothballs.
Pyongyang took a parting swipe at the United States on Friday, likening Washington to a “brigand” determined to disarm and then invade North Korea.
President George W. Bush has branded reclusive Pyongyang part of an “axis of evil” along with pre-war Iraq and Iran. The Bush administration says it is committed to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, but US hawks favour regime change.
“The lack of credibility on both sides is a very serious obstacle” to defusing the nuclear crisis, said Shi, the Chinese academic.
Mitoji Yamanaka, Japanese negotiator at the Beijing talks, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying he believed talks would continue despite the comments by the unnamed North Korean delegate, who said there was no need for more discussions.
Asked about this statement, Yamanaka said: “We are acting on (the idea) that the talks will continue to be held.”
“The meeting was the first round on the nuclear problem, and I believe a movement in the direction of denuclearization clearly emerged,” he told reporters after arriving back in Japan.
US officials have said North Korea raised the rhetoric on Thursday by talking about carrying out a test and saying it could declare itself a nuclear power.—Reuters
