South Korea opposes discussion of its controversial atomic experiments at six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, a senior official said yesterday.
Chung Woo-Seong, advisor to President Roh Moo-Hyun on foreign affairs, said the recently revealed experiments in 1982 and 2000 were merely on a laboratory scale and the government had no role in them.
"These experiments have no relevance to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program," Chung said on a radio talk show.
"The experiments were merely on a laboratory scale and the government had no roles in the experiment," Chung said by phone on the MBC radio talk show from Moscow. Chung is accompanying Roh, who is visiting Russia.
Chung said Roh had explained this to President Vladimir Putin and briefed him on South Korea's renewed promise not to develop or possess nuclear weapons. Putin expressed his "understanding," according to Chung.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan reportedly said Tuesday that the nuclear experiments by South Korea should also be on the table at the six-nation talks.
Investigators from the UN nuclear watchdog began a week-long investigation into the experiments on Monday after Seoul renewed a pledge never to develop atomic weapons.
Earlier this month, as a first team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors was visiting South Korea, the government revealed that its scientists secretly enriched a small amount of uranium in 2000.
Then came revelations that scientists had extracted a tiny amount of plutonium in 1982.
South Korea insisted the experiments were not linked to nuclear weapons programs. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, however, expressed "serious concern" about the activities.
The new inspection team will report back to the Vienna-based IAEA by November after interviewing scientists engaged in nuclear experiments.
A senior official of the ruling Uri Party said South Korea would go the extra mile to ensure transparency in its nuclear activities.
"South Korea is ready to stand naked before inspections," Chun Jung-Bae, majority leader of the National Assembly, told reporters.
On Saturday South Korea made a fresh pledge that it would not develop or possess nuclear weapons but would pursue scientific research transparently.
The case, however, has already damaged multilateral efforts to persuade Stalinist North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs.
Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency warned Saturday that the communist country would not abandon its nuclear ambitions. It also said North Korea would not attend the six-nation talks on its nuclear program unless South Korea cleared up suspicions over its nuclear experiments.
A fourth round of the six-nation talks was scheduled for this month but China has admitted it would be difficult to hold them by the end of September as planned.
Apart from the two Koreas, the talks include China, the US, Russia and Japan.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese