Pyongyang wants more balanced reports on Korean nuke dispute<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): North Korea yesterday called for more balanced
\nnews reporting on the country's nuclear dispute with the United
\nStates and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).<\/p>\n
North Korean Ambassador Han Bong Ha said yesterday that the
\nWestern world, as well as Japan and South Korea, enjoy greater
\naccess to the international media, \"resulting in imbalances of
\nnews reports, and deceptions, concerning the issue\".<\/p>\n
Han accused IAEA officials of \"telling lies to the UN Security
\nCouncil and the international world.\"<\/p>\n
Han's statements came shortly after an announcement from
\ngeneral director of North Korea's General Department of Atomic
\nEnergy Pak Yong Nam warning that Pyongyang would quit the nuclear
\nNon-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if it came under UN pressure over
\nits suspected drive to build a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n
The warning, carried by the North Korean news agency KCNA, was
\ncontained in a letter to the IAEA director general, Hans Blix.<\/p>\n
Last week, the IAEA said it would notify the Security Council
\nthat it was no longer capable of guaranteeing that North Korea
\nhad not diverted fuel from a five-megawatt nuclear plant at
\nYongbyon to a military program.<\/p>\n
The watchdog agency claimed that it has tried to sample fuel
\nrods from the reactor during a refueling program, but says North
\nKorea has stonewalled access to the operation, the AFP news
\nagency reported.<\/p>\n
Dismissing the IAEA accusations, Han said North Korea had
\ninstead agreed to \"fully preserve the possibility of technical ad
\nhoc inspection of the fuel rods ... and we firmly ensure the non-
\ndiversion of the spent fuel rods.\"<\/p>\n
He accused the IAEA officials of \"concluding\" that the
\npossibility for later measurement of fuel rods was lost.<\/p>\n
Chief of the Indonesian delegation to the 11th Non-Aligned
\nMovement ministerial conference, Nana Sutresna, upon his arrival
\nat Soekarno-Hatta international airport on Monday, told reporters
\nthat the nuclear dispute in the Korean peninsula received a great
\ndeal of attention from NAM members.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia will avoid substantial intervention, but in its
\ncapacity as the chairman of NAM, we want to see the dispute
\nsettled peacefully,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that since there were suggestions of support for
\nnuclear proliferation in the region during NAM's summit in
\nJakarta in 1992, member countries felt obliged to see that the
\ndispute ended.<\/p>\n
Nana said participants of the ministerial conference finally
\ncame to a compromise statement in which NAM could on the one hand
\nshow its ability to keep track of the dispute settlement talks,
\nand on the other promote cooperation and dialog between the U.S.,
\nNorth Korea and the IAEA.<\/p>\n
The UN Security Council on Monday launching informal
\nconsultations for possible economic sanctions against North
\nKorea.<\/p>\n
Han said the agency, in its capacity as an international body,
\nshould not be using double standards in solving nuclear-related
\nproblems.<\/p>\n
He said Japan, where 75 kilograms of plutonium was recently
\nfound, has been spared from IAEA and U.S. scrutiny. \"The
\nplutonium is enough to make nine atomic bombs. But the IAEA acted
\nas if they did not to know this and refused to make further
\ninvestigations,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"We now know that the U.S. is using the (IAEA) organization as
\nan instrument to achieve its self-interest,\" he added. (pwn)<\/p>",
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