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Kim Jong-il Regime Hints at Compromise

It takes some attention to see it, but as six-party talks are due to resume, Pyongyang seems to be indicating that it would accept compensation for giving up its plans for a peaceful nuclear power program. Check out the italicized paragraph of this article [paragraph six] from the Korean Central News Agency.

September 6, 2005

Original Article (English)

Kim Jong-il and His Pyongyang Posse

Pyongyang: Koreans regard the independent rights and interests of their country as their life and soul, and it is characteristic of them to protect these things to the last. So no one should expect the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to waive its right to peaceful nuclear activity. The Rodong Sinmun [Communist Party newspaper] on Tuesday said  this in a commentary. The news analysis goes on:

During the first phase of the 4^th round of six-party talks, the U.S. was adamant in insisting that North Korea give up the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, to say nothing of its nuclear weapons program. This was a unilateral and high-handed demand upon which the latter can neither make any compromise nor accept.

The complete lifting of the U.S. nuclear threat and an end to its hostile policy aimed at stifling North Korea would automatically lead to an end to measures taken to bolster its policy of self-defense through nuclear deterrence. North Korea's peaceful nuclear activity is one of the key sectors that should be further developed as the economy improves and the material and cultural demands of the people increase, and is an activity that is a legitimate right enshrined in international law.

Russia, China, Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, all the other parties to the six-party talks, massively produce and use nuclear energy. But despite this hard reality, the U.S. leaves no stone unturned to stop North Korea from exercising its sovereign rights permitted under international law.

North Korea is neither a war criminal State nor a defeated State and has done nothing harmful to others. For what reason should it abandon its right to peaceful nuclear activity?

After tightening its belt for decades, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea built nuclear power facilities. It would be unimaginable for North Korea to yield to the pressure of outsiders and dismantle its independent nuclear power infrastructure without any proposal to compensate for the loss.

North Korea will, as ever, ceaselessly promote peaceful nuclear power to promote economic activity and improve the standard of living of its people. North Korea is consistent in its stand of seeking a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue and to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
If the U.S. tries to achieve its unreasonable demands with power and coercion in defiance of the principle of impartiality, it will only further complicate the situation and inhibit progress at the six-party talks.

The U.S. should acknowledge North Korea’s legitimate right to peaceful nuclear activity and opt for finding a fair settlement of the nuclear issue.

MOVIE: THE CRIME OF KOREA, 1950, From the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Korea Invaded By Communists, U.S. Must Help

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