- (AFP) -- North Korea is still observing the 1994 arms
control deal freezing its nuclear weapons program but the accord is "hanging
by a thread," a former US ambassador to Seoul said here, citing a
top North Korean official.
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- "It is hanging by a thread, which means that it
is in a very tenuous state, but North Korea is still supporting it,"
former US ambassador to Seoul Donald Gregg said Wednesday on his return
from talks in Pyongyang.
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- Gregg cited North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kang
Sok-Ju, Pyongyang's lead negotiator with the United States in the nuclear
stand-off.
-
- A month ago Kang triggered a nuclear crisis by saying
the accord was "nullified," according to US envoy James Kelly.
-
- Kelly, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian
and Pacific affairs, revealed that during talks in Pyongyang on October
4 the Stalinist regime also admitted it was pursuing a nuclear weapons
program based on enriched uranium in violation of the 1994 accord, the
so-called Agreed Framework.
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- Washington is demanding that North Korea dismantle its
programme as a precondition to any talks but Pyongyang has demanded a non-aggression
pact with the United States first.
-
- Gregg, however, indicated that North Korea was flexible
and was prepared for a "simultaneous approach" to resolving the
crisis.
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- "This we regarded as a step forward," he said.
-
- Most of all, North Korea wants its deep fear of US military
aggression lifted, said Gregg, accompanied on his five-day trip to the
North by author and Korean expert Dan Oberdorfer.
-
- "I think that they would like the United States
to give them some assurances that we don't want to blow them out of the
water," Gregg told a press conference here.
-
- He said the North was very encouraged by a statement
in February by President George W. Bush during a visit to South Korea when
he said US forces had no intention of striking North Korea.
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- "That statement has been drowned out by statements
made by other US officials since then," he said. "A simple restatement
of what Bush said in February would get the whole ball rolling again."
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- Gregg said that during his 9-1/2 hours of talks with
North Korean officials they never once admitted pursuing a nuclear weapons
programme, although they came close on occassion.
-
- He said the North has adopted a "neither confirm
nor deny" policy on whether it has nuclear weapons and on whether
it was developing enriched uranium before Bush took office in January 2001.
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- The former ambassador to Seoul from 1989-93 said he visited
North Korea in a private capacity but would brief US officials on the trip.
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