North Korea’s rubber-stamp Parliament endorsed on Wednesday a government decision to boost the Stalinist state’s nuclear weapons drive, the Korean Central News Agency said.
The Supreme People’s Assembly said the deterrent was needed to protect the nation after Washington rejected North Korean demands for a non-aggression pact at six-party nuclear crisis talks in Beijing last week.
Parliament backed a foreign ministry statement released on Saturday, saying further talks were ”useless” and that North Korea had no option, but to build up its nuclear arsenal, the news agency said.
Parliament ”considered as just all the measures taken by the foreign ministry upon the authorisation of the government, supported and approved them and decided to take relevant measures,” the agency said, quoting a parlimentary resolution.
It said the foreign ministry’s call for a nuclear build-up was necessary as ”a just self-defensive means to repel the US preemptive nuclear attacks and ensure peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region.”
North Korea used the three-day talks in Beijing, which brought together the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States, to demand a non-aggression pact from Washington as well as economic and other benefits, saying it would answer to US security concerns later.
Delegates agreed to meet for further talks, but were unable to name a date or venue. The Stalinist state complained bitterly that Washington refused to respond to its ”reasonable and comprehensive proposal to
denuclearise the Korean peninsula.”
Instead, Washington stuck to its ”brigandish” demand that North Korea scrap its nuclear weapons ambitions first, the parliamentary resolution said. This was further evidence that Washington was interested only in disarming North Korea prior to overthrowing it, the resolution said.
The talks betrayed North Korean expectations, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, and were deemed ”not only useless, but harmful in every aspect.”
China also criticised the US attitude, with Beijing’s delegate to the talks, Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi calling Washington ”the main problem” impeding progress.
China’s foreign ministry urged Washington earlier this week to rethink its strategy for negotiations. The US has said it stood by its current policy on the crisis.
”Our policy on North Korea remains the same, and we are pursuing a peaceful, diplomatic solution through a multilateral forum,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Tuesday.
North Korea’s Parliament convened on Wednesday. The 687-member legislative body said the nuclear issue had reached a ”grave phase” because of US hostility towards North Korea.
In Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun urged China to keep pushing for a new round of talks when he met visiting Chinese parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo.
”President Roh … asked for China’s continued role and contribution to maintaining the dialogue to settle the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully,” presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-Young said in a statement.
”Chairman Wu Bangguo said … China would closely cooperate with South Korea to achieve denuclearisation, peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.” — Sapa-AFP