North Korea’s nuclear weapons are “not a plaything” and their future is not up for negotiation, Pyongyang’s ambassador to China said yesterday, ahead of a visit by a US envoy.
The comments by North Korean Ambassador to China Ji Jae-ryong came after an international deal with Tehran to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities in return for the lifting of crippling sanctions.
In a rare news conference in Beijing, Ji said the North’s nuclear capability was “not a plaything to be put on the negotiating table, as it is the essential means to protect sovereignty and vital rights from the US nuclear threat and hostile policy.”
Photo: AP
He spoke at the North Korean embassy in front of pictures of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and his son Kim Jong-il, father of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea “remains unchanged in the mission of its nuclear force as long as the US continues pursuing its hostile policy” toward it, he said, accusing Washington of basing atomic weapons in South Korea and turning it into the US’ “largest outpost nuclear base.”
“We have the power to cope with any kinds of war methods of the US imperialists and have the strong power to restrain the provocative nuclear war acts of the US,” he said.
Ji spoke in Korean and his remarks were translated into English by an official interpreter.
His uncompromising remarks came as Washington’s envoy to the six-party talks — a forum aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program through negotiations — was on a regional tour and due in Beijing yesterday.
US Special Envoy Sydney Seiler on Monday said in Seoul that the agreement with Iran demonstrated US openness in denuclearization talks.
Both Tehran and Pyongyang, allies since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, have been subjected to economic sanctions due to their controversial nuclear programs.
The deal reached with Iran was touted by some as a possible blueprint for eventual negotiations with North Korea, which staged three successful nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
However, Ji’s comments echo those of a North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, who said the North’s situation differed from Iran, as it “is a nuclear weapons state both in name and reality, and it has interests as a nuclear weapons state.”
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