- North Korea has up to 300 nuclear warheads, all locked
onto American cities, the unofficial spokesman for North Korea has said.
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- Kim Myong Chol, a Japanese-born Korean, said he was delivering
a message on behalf of the North Korean government.
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- "North Korea has a nuclear capability. It's quite
obvious. North Korea may have minimum 100 nuclear warheads, maximum 300.
They all lock onto American cities," he told the Nine Network's Sunday
program.
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- Kim denied North Korea had breached the agreement it
made with then US president Bill Clinton in 1994.
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- "No, no, North Korea produced all its weapons before
that agreement was signed," he said.
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- "If the US attacks North Korea, North Korea will
definitely use those nuclear weapons against the US mainland."
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- Kim warned the possible economic embargo by the US would
also provoke the use of nuclear weapons.
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- "North Korea will use those nuclear weapons against
the US mainland if America imposes additional economic sanctions on North
Korea," he said.
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- Kim said the nuclear weapons had been tested for North
Korea by Pakistan and they were now hidden underground.
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- "America has no knowledge of where they are. The
Pakistanis have done the (testing) job for North Korea," he said.
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- The Sunday program reported it had spoken to the Pakistani
High Commission which had denied the claim, saying it was "totally
wrong".
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- Kim said: "Of course, they must deny that".
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- He also said that North Korea had not been involved in
drug trafficking, following Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's request
to meet with North Korea's Ambassador to Australia, Chon Jae Hong.
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- Mr Downer has called the meeting to express concern about
the Pyongyang government's possible role in trafficking drugs, after the
interception of a North Korean ship accused of bringing $80 million worth
of heroin into Australia.
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- "I'm afraid (the) Australian Foreign Minister is
entirely wrong," Kim said.
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- "The ship may be North Korean ship, the strong likelihood
is that the ship was simply used by some evil forces to traffic heroin.
This doesn't mean the North Korean government was involved here."
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- Kim said the North Korean government had not been proven
guilty of drug trafficking and gave the Australian government a stern warning.
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- "I'm afraid, so far the US or Japan (have) all failed
to produce hard evidence that the North Korean government was involved
in traffic of drugs or narcotics.
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- "If the Australian government tried to do so, it
is a bit unfortunate. Australian government should be careful in handling
some issue.
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- "To all purposes and intents, North Korean government
has never been involved in such traffic," he said.
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- Kim said he was flattered to be given the title as unofficial
spokesman for the North Korean government.
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- "That's the title granted by New York Times, Washington
Post, BBC, and other Western media.
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- "If they give me that kind of title, I'm delighted,
I'm flattered," he said.
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- This report appears on news.com.au.
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- http://news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,6380261,00.html
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