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