Nuclear arms no bargaining chip - Pyongyang
Date March 18, 2013
Choe Sang-Hun
Wary: A South Korean child at a rally denouncing the country's annual joint military exercises with the US. Photo: AP
North Korea says its nuclear weapons are not a bargaining chip to trade for economic concessions, warning that it will never negotiate with the United States as long as Washington maintains its hostile policy towards the North.
The statement on Saturday was the latest in a series in which North Korea has appeared to harden its position on its nuclear weapons program. Since the UN Security Council imposed more sanctions to punish North Korea for its launching of a long-range rocket in December and its third nuclear test last month, the country has said it will no longer attend talks on dismantling its nuclear program.
North Korea previously quit multinational nuclear talks, but until recently had also often said ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons was its ultimate goal.
Many regional analysts and officials have suggested North Korea might eventually give up its nuclear weapons for a package of economic incentives. The harsh language used by the North, some say, was just a ploy to maximise the price.
But after North Korea identified itself as a nuclear power in its constitution, revised in April, and after its nuclear test last month, a growing number of analysts say they now believe that North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear arms, determined to go the way of countries like Pakistan.
''If they think we have acquired our nuclear weapons to trade them for some economic benefits it will be nothing but an utterly absurd miscalculation,'' a spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday in a Korean-language statement that was carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. ''As long as the United States does not abandon its hostile policy, we have no intention of talking with it, and we will stick fast to our course under 'songun.' ''
Songun, or ''military first,'' is North Korea's governing philosophy. It gives top priority to building nuclear arms and bolstering the military to deter what the government calls US attempts to ''strangle'' and weaken the country with trade embargoes before an invasion.
The North Korean warning came just days after President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Thomas Donilon, said that ''to get the assistance it desperately needs and the respect it claims it wants, North Korea will have to change course''.
''Otherwise, the United States will continue to work with allies and partners to tighten national and international sanctions to impede North Korea's nuclear and missile programs,'' Mr Donilon said. He advised North Korea to learn from Burma, where changes initiated by new leaders have resulted in billions in debt forgiveness, large-scale development assistance and an influx of foreign investment.
North Korea said offers like Mr Donilon's ''may work for other nations, but to us they are nothing but the barking of a dog''.
The New York Times
