- (AFP) -- North Korea has rejected a new US proposal aimed
at defusing a 20-month stand-off over its nuclear weapons program but welcomed
a shift in Washington's hardline negotiating stance. Pyongyang said the
US plan to give North Korea three months to shut down and seal its nuclear
weapons facilities in return for major economic and diplomatic rewards
was unworkable, branding it "unrealistic".
-
- North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in an English-language
statement that the US plan "could not be supported by anyone as it
totally lacked scientific and realistic nature".
-
- Instead it said the US should come up with immediate
rewards for a nuclear freeze and drop its "unreasonable assertion"
that Pyongyang is running a clandestine nuclear program based on enriched
uranium.
-
- "A scrutiny of the US proposal suggests that, to
out regret it only mentioned phased demands for disarming the DPRK (North
Korea)," the spokesman said in the statement carried by the official
Korean Central News Agency monitored here.
-
- North Korea has offered to freeze its nuclear weapons
drive in return for an end to US sanctions and energy assistance.
-
- In return for concessions, Pyongyang was prepared to
"freeze all the facilities related to nuclear weapons" that would
entail a ban on producing, transferring and testing nuclear weapons and
would lead to the ultimate dismantlement of the nuclear weapons program,
the statement said.
-
- Prior to last week's Beijing talks, the United States
had insisted that North Korea had to scrap its nuclear ambitions first
before it would receive concessions.
-
- At the Beijing talks, however, Washington called for
a step-by-step dismantling of North Korea's plutonium and uranium weapons
programs in return for aid and security guarantees and easing of its political
and economic isolation.
-
- North Korea welcomed Washington's retreat from its earlier
demand for the unconditional scrapping of the North's nuclear weapons as
a first step towards resolving the stand-off.
-
- "Some common elements helpful to making progress
were found there," the spokesman said in the dispatch.
-
- It also applauded Washington's decision to drop the term
"CVID", referring to the US goal of complete, verifiable and
irreversible dismantling of its nuclear facilities.
-
- Washington has used the term as a mantra at previous
rounds, much to the irritation of North Korean delegates, according to
media reports here.
-
- The statement was North Korea's first official reaction
to last week's six-nation talks that ended without concrete progress.
-
- © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1142379.htm
|
