SEOUL,
March 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Keeping up its
defiant tone, North Korea threatened Thursday, March 3, to resume
long-range missile testing, hours after demanding Washington to
apologize over “outpost of tyranny” jibe.
“There
is now no binding force for us on the moratorium on missile
testing,” said a 5,000-word Foreign Ministry Statement carried by
the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and cited by Reuters.
“We
are not legally bound by an international treaty, or anything else on
the missile issue.”
Pyongyang
announced a self-imposed moratorium in September 1999, one year after
it sparked global concern by test-launching a Taepodong-1 missile with
a range of 2,500 kilometers (1550 miles) over Japan.
It
said the moratorium was agreed when dialogue was under way with the
administration of former US president Bill Clinton.
North
Korea stressed that as incumbent President George W. Bush had cut off
talks when he took office in 2001, the moratorium was no longer valid.
On
February 10, Pyongyang announced it possessed nuclear weapons and was
withdrawing indefinitely from the six-party talks involving the two
Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
The
parties have met three times since 2003, with the last round held in
June.
North
Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for last September.
Apology
The
communist state lambasted Washington Wednesday, March 2, for
describing the country as part of “axis of evil” and an “outpost
of tyranny”.
“The
US should apologize for his above-said remarks and withdraw them.”
Pyongyang
blamed its continued efforts to build a nuclear arsenal on the
“hostile” policies of the Bush administration.
“As
everybody knows, the US hostile policy toward (North Korea) compels it
to bolster its self-defensive nuclear arsenal,” said the statement.
Pyongyang
said it had “manufactured nukes with much effort” to counter a US
attack.
It
stressed that Washington must create “conditions and
justification” for the talks to resume.
US
officials say North Korea’s missile program poses a serious threat
to Washington and its allies.
South
Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korea is developing rocket
engines for its Taepodong-2 missile with a range of 6,700 kilometers
(4,150 miles), which would be capable of hitting the US state of
Hawaii.
However,
it argues that Pyongyang lacks the technology to launch a
nuclear-tipped missile.
CIA
Director Porter Goss told the US Congress last month that
nuclear-armed North Korea could resume missile tests anytime and that
it has active biological and chemical weapons programs.
Dialogue
Plea
Washington,
for its part, responded to Pyongyang’s threats by saying the issue
can only be addressed through talks, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
“We
will be prepared and we have been prepared to deal with any questions
and deal with the DPRK (North Korea), but at the table,” said US
Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill, who heads Washington’s
negotiating team to the six-way talks.
In
statements Thursday, he said Washington believed that the six-party
talks are “absolutely the best way” to deal with the stand-off.
“I
would say we are very much ready, but the question is, do they really
want to stay out of the only process which is going forward and build
a nuclear program that really has no use?” Hill said.
“As
far as threats to undertake tests or other military activity that
certainly is not helpful and doesn't serve a useful purpose,” Deputy
US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Wednesday.
He
also brushed off the call for an apology and insisted North Korea
should resume talks.
“Our
view is that the best course of action for everybody is to resume
six-party talks as soon as possible.”
The
United States and North Korea have been locked in a stand-off since
October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of operating a secret
program based on highly-enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms
control agreement.
“Unproductive”
 |
|
“We will be prepared and we have been prepared to deal with any questions and deal with the DPRK, but at the table,” said Hill. (Reuters)
|
Pyongyang’s
missile-test threats also drew mild criticism from Japan which
described the remarks as “unproductive”.
“North
Korea is trying to raise the stakes by stirring tension ahead of the
six-way nuclear talks,” an official in the Japanese Foreign
Ministry's Northeast Asia Division told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“It
is unproductive,” he said. “Japan, South Korea and the United
States continue to work toward a resumption of six-way talks without
any conditions.”
North
Korea shocked the world by firing a missile over Japan into the
Pacific Ocean in 1998 and calling it a satellite launch.
A
joint statement after a September 2002 summit between North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said
Pyongyang would “further maintain the moratorium on missile
launching in and after 2003.”
Kim
promised Koizumi at a 2004 follow-up summit to continue the
moratorium, according to the foreign ministry official.
