N. Korea Accuses US of Breaking Nuclear Accord
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea has accused the United States of breaking a disarmament-for-aid deal struck in six-party talks, claiming the Stalinist state's resumption of nuclear activity is based on the action-for-action principle.
In his keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly session Saturday, Pak Kil-yon, North Korean vice minister of foreign affairs, said his country had honored its commitments with its nuclear facilities in the final stages of being shut down.
But the United States had laid an artificial obstacle to implementing the Oct. 3 agreement (2007) by refusing to implement its obligations and put forward such an unjust demand as verification of the international standard never agreed on among the six parties or between North Korea and the United States, he said.
The standard is an attempt by the American country to infringe upon his nation's sovereignty, he added.
Last Wednesday, the communist state announced it would restore a nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon which was shut down last year in retaliation for not removing it from the U.S. list of sponsors of terrorism.
It also asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to remove seals and surveillance cameras from the nuclear facility, according to the agency's deputy director general, Olli Heinonen.
Pak said that now that the United States has broken the agreement, North Korea is inevitably taking relevant countermeasures on the basis of the principle of action for action.
The official, however, left the door open for further negotiations to stop the situation worsening, saying, Pyongyang remains consistent in its position to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.
As for the alleged human rights abuse in North Korea, Pak rebutted that America is interfering in the internal affairs of North Korea on the pretext of protection of human rights.
Pak also launched a verbal assault on South Korea and Japan.
He targeted the Lee Myung-bak administration, claiming it denies inter-Korean declarations signed June 15 in 2000 and Oct. 4 in 2007 which led to sour relations between the two Koreas.
Previously, Pyongyang cut all communication channels with Seoul and kicked the South's officials out of its territory in March after Lee vowed a tougher stance on the communist state.
On Japan and its World War II legacy, Pak criticized it as the only war criminal state that beautifies the history of aggression and massacre of millions of innocent people in Korea and other Asian countries.