Don’t laugh. The North Koreans actually said what you are about to read.
Pyongyang has apparently decided to make the recent revelation that South Korea conducted a uranium enrichment experiment in 2000 an issue. In a telephone interview with South Korea’s Yonhap News, North Korea’s U.N. Vice-Ambassador Han Song-nyol said he thought the South Korean uranium enrichment experiment was connected to “the arms race in Northeast Asia,” pointing out that because of the experiment, “it has become difficult to prevent an expansion of the nuclear arms race.”
He later added, “South Korea’s uranium separation project, which was for making nuclear weapons, will destroy stability in Northeast Asia and accelerate nuclear competition.”
This was the first statement by a high-ranking North Korean official concerning news of the South Korean experiment.
Han also said the revelation revealed the U.S. “double standard” toward North Korea, claiming, “While the U.S. expresses its position that it is either unconcerned about South Korea’s uranium experiment or trusts South Korea, it is showing a double standard by pressuring North Korea with inspections over a highly enriched uranium (HEU) development program that it doesn’t even have.”
He also nixed the fourth round of six party talks, originally scheduled to take place in late September, saying, “In so far as the United States has taken the items agreed upon in the last round of talks calling for North Korea to freeze its nuclear facilities while the other participating nations took corresponding measures and turned them on their head, no further intercourse is required.”
Interestingly enough, when asked if North Korea has plans to make South Korea’s uranium experiment an issue with either the U.N. Security Council, IAEA, other international bodies or through the six-party talks, Han said, “If you wait and see, you’ll find out.”
He also said, “The demanding by the U.S. of inspections under the pretext of a HEU program we don’t have is a prior stage to militarily attacking us, like what happened to Iraq… Through the Iraq situation, we learned the lesson that we must never concede to such intense demands.”
Tough day for the South Koreans. And they probably thought they were being nice by admitting that they should have reported the test back in 2000.
