Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, visiting South Korea, dismissed reports that his country has helped North Korea proliferate missiles or build nuclear weapons.
In interviews with South Korean media published yesterday, Musharraf said Pakistan had in the past had military cooperation with North Korea and had bought missiles from the communist state at the center of a nuclear proliferation crisis in Northeast Asia, but that had stopped.
"The reality is that during the four years that I have been president I can say with full guarantee that no proliferation has ever taken place. There has been no defense collaboration with North Korea," he told the English-language Korea Times.
"We have had relations and defense cooperation with North Korea and we have bought surface-to-air missiles in the past because of a threat to us. But now we produce ourselves," he said.
Pakistan, which conducted its first nuclear tests in 1998, has repeatedly denied reports of any nuclear or missile-related cooperation with North Korea. A Pakistani firm was slapped with US sanctions last March for allegedly arranging the transfer of nuclear-capable missiles from North Korea to Pakistan.
In an interview with the Korea Herald, Musharraf voiced support for six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear arms programs.
"We are extremely concerned about the escalation of nuclear tension on the Korean Peninsula," he told the Herald.
Musharraf arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day state visit to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and Pakistan.
He was to meet President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday.
Pakistan, which has about 5,000 guest workers in South Korea, also hoped to draw more South Korean investment in the oil, gas and telecommunications sectors, he said.
South Korea has invested just US$15.8 million in the South Asian country.
Musharraf flew to Seoul from China, where he agreed a half-billion-dollar loan and won commitments to boost trade but did not sign an expected deal on nuclear power plant cooperation.
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