North Korea should enjoy the right to the peaceful use of
nuclear power, said Kim Kye-gwan, the country's chief negotiator to
the ongoing six-party Korean nuclear talks, in Beijing
yesterday.??
Kim, also vice foreign minister, made the remarks outside the
North Korean Embassy in China following a heads-of-delegation
meeting of the talks last night.
Kim expressed dissatisfaction with the US' opposition to the
North's peaceful use of nuclear power.
"All countries in the world enjoy the right to make a peaceful
use of nuclear power," Kim said. "North Korea is neither a defeated
nation in a war nor a nation having committed any crimes, so why
should we not be allowed to use the nuclear power peacefully?"
He said now all participating nations in the six-party talks
except the US understand the North's position. He also expressed
his belief that the US would also be persuaded in the end to
support North Korea to make a peaceful use of nuclear power.
According to Kim, as differences remained in the political
stances of North Korea and the US, the current round of talks is
now in sort of stalemate in the drafting process of a common
document.
He said so far various parties to the talks have failed to reach
a consensus on specific measures relating to the denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula, adding that North Korea and the US are
still unable to establish mutual trust on the normalization of
bilateral ties.
"This round of talks aims at realizing the denuclearization of
the peninsula," he said. "We will make every effort to help the
talks achieve progress, and the talks will continue."
The current round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula
nuclear issue, involving China, the US, Russia, Japan, South and
North Korea, has entered its 11th day today.
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2005)