Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry released a statement today as regards the wrong view spread by the U.S. and its allies on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The statement says:
It is the consistent strategic goal of the DPRK to achieve lasting peace and stability and realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
However, the United States and its allies are now spreading a wrong view on the denuclearization of the peninsula at a time when the six-way talks for a solution to the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. still remain at a stalemate.
They assert that the DPRK's access to nukes is incompatible with the efforts to ensure security and the abandonment of its nuclear program would precisely lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula.
This is a deliberate distortion of the essence of the situation.
If the Korean Peninsula is to be denuclearized, it is necessary to put an end to the growing U.S. nuclear threat in and around the peninsula, the source that compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear weapons, and establish the relations of confidence between the DPRK and the countries concerned.
By nature, the denuclearization of the peninsula was initiated by the DPRK for the purpose of freeing it from the U.S. nuclear threat. That was why the DPRK acceded to the NPT and concluded the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework.
But, the U.S. has abused all this for isolating and stifling the DPRK.
The Bush administration, in particular, openly posed a nuclear threat to the DPRK, thus compelling it to produce nuclear weapons so as to prevent a war and protect its system and existence.
Such being a hard fact, the U.S. is twisting the essence of the denuclearization of the peninsula. It asserts that the DPRK's dismantlement of nukes would lead to the denuclearization, sidestepping the nuclear threat posed by Washington.
Denuclearization is needed only for ensuring lasting peace and stability on the peninsula.
In the real sense, the denuclearization of the peninsula calls for rooting out the very source that compelled the DPRK to make nuclear weapons. This would be a proper order in the efforts to find a solution to the issue.
To this end, the U.S. should roll back before anything else its hostile policy aimed at toppling the system of the DPRK through a nuclear war after designating it as a "target of preemptive nuclear attack".
But the reality is quite contrary to this demand.
The U.S. keeps many tactical nuclear weapons in south Korea on a permanent basis. And it is ceaselessly shipping nuclear strike means there.
It also brought lots of nuclear carrier flotillas and strategic bombers capable of nuclear delivery into south Korea when it staged large-scale nuclear war exercises against the DPRK in and around south Korea on an annual basis in recent years. It has conducted mock nuke dropping exercises in south Korea by mobilizing even flying corps of its air force in Japan and on Guam, etc.
As if it were not enough with this, the U.S. is spending a colossal amount of fund for developing smaller nukes capable of destroying underground bunkers in the DPRK. Shortly ago it stealthily brought Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine to Jinhae Port in south Korea, sparking off a big furor.
It is preposterous for the U.S. to turn a blind eye to this fact and assert that only the DPRK's dismantlement of its nukes can lead to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
If the peninsula is to be nuclear-free, it is necessary to clear south Korea of all the nuclear weapons of the U.S. and root out every element that can help south Korea have access to nukes.
Of course, this should be confirmed through verification.
It is also necessary to stop all nuclear war exercises against the DPRK in and around the Korean Peninsula, remove leverage by which one can threaten others with nukes and build the relations of confidence among surrounding countries including the DPRK and the U.S.
Only then is it possible to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in practice just as President Kim Il Sung desired so much in his lifetime.
Given that the DPRK and the U.S. are technically at war and south Korea is under the nuclear umbrella of the U.S., nuclear weapons in the hands of the DPRK would serve a main deterrent force in its effort to avert a war on the peninsula and ensure peace and stability there until the above-said demands are met.
The same can be said of the six-party talks.
The six-party talks should provide a platform for seeking comprehensive ways of substantially and fairly realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula, not just as a bargaining ground where a give-and-take type way of solution is discussed.
Gone are the days when the six-party talks took up such give-and-take type issues as reward for freeze.
Now that the DPRK has become a full-fledged nuclear weapons state, the six-party talks should be disarmament talks where the participating countries negotiate the issue on an equal footing.
The U.S. claims that if the DPRK dismantles its nuclear weapons first, it will be given "collective assurances for security" and get a "benefit". This is, however, nothing but a gangster-like logic urging the DPRK to disarm itself and yield to the U.S. domination.
Such unequal "talks" at which the U.S. sitting in a chair is allowed to issue commands to the DPRK while the latter is forced to sit on its knees and meet the former's demand can never help find a solution to the nuclear issue. On the contrary, they will only escalate the confrontation and tensions.
If the U.S. threat of nukes is completely removed from the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity, it will be possible to ensure lasting peace and stability not only in the peninsula but in the rest of Northeast Asia.
If the six-party talks are to creditably fulfill their mission, it is necessary to convert them into a place where ways are sought to completely remove the U.S. threat of nukes and a nuclear war from the peninsula and its vicinity.
The DPRK will as ever do its best to avert a war and realize the comprehensive denuclearization on the peninsula.
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