Foreign Minister Warns of N. Korean Nuclear Threat
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan sent a warning Friday to those who think that North Korea's nuclear ambition is a mere bargaining chip in its effort to have a bilateral negotiation with the United States.
"It's na?ve to believe that the North Korean nuclear weapons are a mere bargaining chip," Yu said in his speech at a meeting held by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul.
"The North aims at the South," he said.
Yu's comment is to ring an alarm to many who no longer view North Korea as an opponent potential to carry imminent threats to their lives.
People's interest in the North Korean issues is fading out, North Korea watchers say.
For example, the news of North's rocket launch or nuclear test is taken as a political gesture that has been shown for decades, they said.
One foreign diplomat in Seoul once said it was interesting to see how little influence those news are now making on people's behaviors.
What contributes the most to the lack of interest is a protracted state of truce on the peninsula, North Korea watchers say.
The war, which broke out nearly 60 years ago, ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.
The minister stressed the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula should be the priority.
"It used to be the case that the inter-Korean relations were dealt with more seriousness than denuclearization of North Korea. But, I think, denuclearization can no longer take the back seat," he said.
Yu said the multilateral approach would be the best means to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and that "South Korea and the U.S. see eye to eye on that."
In Washington, an official at the State Department said Thursday that the U.S. was willing to meet North Korea soon in an attempt to bring it back to the six-party talks.
The communist state has sought for direct negotiations with the U.S.
"What Pyongyang ultimately wants from Washington is recognition as a nuclear state," the minister said.
He also said North Korea has extracted some 40 kilograms of plutonium, which means, ``It is able to produce at least 6 to 8 nuclear weapons."