The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would give up
all its nuclear weapon programs once the United States abandoned
its hostile policies toward the DPRK with actions, Kim Kye-gwan,
DPRK deputy foreign minister and head of the DPRK delegation, said
at the opening ceremony of the third round of six-party talks in
Beijing Wednesday afternoon.
Kim said it was the task of all parties to break the deadlock
between the DPRK and the United States on the nuclear issue during
the third round of the six-party talks.
He said the "freeze for compensation" program proposed by the
DPRK delegation could break the deadlock between the United States
and the DPRK as a result of distrust and differences.
As the DPRK's delegation clarified before, the goal of the DPRK
was to build a nuclear weapon-free Korean Peninsula, said Kim.
The DPRK's nuclear programs were products of US hostility toward
the DPRK, created for protecting itself and countering US nuclear
threats, Kim said, stressing that the DPRK did not want to
permanently possess nuclear weapons nor would it attack the United
States with nuclear weapons.
Kim said the DPRK would make preparations to give up all its
nuclear programs once the United States abandoned the hostile
policies toward the DPRK with actions.
He added that the DPRK would like to hear something new from the
US delegation and it would put forward concrete plans on freezing
nuclear programs if the US party withdrew the CVID demand
(complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement) and accepted
the "freeze for compensation" program during the four-day
talks.
(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2004)