The Hindu : `N. Korea ready to discuss nuclear issue'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 11, 2003

International

International

`N. Korea ready to discuss nuclear issue'

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE July 10. South Korea has welcomed the perceived willingness of North Korea to discuss its nuclear profile during the inter-Korean talks which began in Seoul today at the ministerial level — the 11th in a series of parleys.

Kim Ryong-song, head of the DPRK delegation to the four-day talks, was quoted by the South Korean officials as saying that Pyongyang "can respond to dialogue with dialogue and to war with war''. This should be seen against the DPRK's concerns that the U.S. might unleash a "nuclear war'' against it to force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

The DPRK firmed up its stand on these lines in the context of the new claims by South Korean intelligence officials that the North had begun reprocessing the spent fuel of a power plant to derive weapons-grade material. At today's talks, the South Korean Korean Unification Minister, Jeong Se-hyun, asked the DPRK to heed the "international demand'' for ``multilateral talks'' on the issue of its nuclear-weaponisation drive. It was also indicated by South Korea that it would seek to bring about a compromise between Washington and Pyongyang.

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