The Hindu : N. Korea has nuke arms, says former Kim aide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

International

International

N. Korea has nuke arms, says former Kim aide

SEOUL JULY 4. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, told aides in 1996 that his country had nuclear weapons, a prominent North Korean defector said on Friday.

Hwang Jang Yop, a former top aide to Mr. Kim and who defected to Seoul in 1997, made the remarks as the United States tries to muster international pressure on North Korea to drop its suspected development of nuclear weapons.

Washington believes North Korea already has one or two atomic bombs. ``I heard from Kim Jong-Il and other people in charge, like Jun Byong Ho, that `we made nuclear weapons,''' Yonhap news agency quoted Mr. Hwang as saying. ``But I have not seen a nuclear weapon myself.''

Mr. Ho is a member of the National Defence Commission, a Workers' Party organisation that oversees the military and is led by Kim Jong-Il.

Mr. Hwang said North Korean leaders made the claim in 1996, according to all-news cable YTN.

He was speaking at a parliamentary forum on North Korean defectors and human rights.

American officials said North Korean negotiators told them in April that North Korea had nuclear weapons and was prepared to use them, depending on U.S. actions.

North Korea has demanded security guarantees and economic aid from the U.S. in exchange for abandoning its nuclear programmes, U.S. officials said.

``People in many countries, without knowing the true eelidentity of the North Korean dictatorial leadership, are pitying it as a small country, an impoverished country,'' said Mr. Hwang (81), who compared North Korea's leadership to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

``Even in South Korea ... many people, fooled by the North's cunning strategy, are demanding national cooperation while rejecting the United States, the most trusted democratic ally,'' he said.

— AP

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