North Korea on Friday categorically denied it had ever carried out uranium enrichment nor had it proliferated nuclear facilities to other countries.
"North Korea has never enriched uranium nor rendered nuclear cooperation to any other country. It has never dreamed of such things. Such things will not happen in the future, either," the official news agency KCNA quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
"The Bush administration was so absurd as to raise the issue of suspected uranium enrichment," the spokesman said. But "taking into consideration the face of the Bush administration," the DPRK rendered necessary sincere help by allowing U.S. experts to see sensitive military objects and providing them with samples, he said.
As for the issue of "suspected nuclear cooperation with Syria" raised by the United States, North Korea said it has nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, it still tries to meet the US request for reconfirming its commitment not to proliferate the nuclear technology, the spokesman said.
"However, the further the negotiations went on, the greater disappointment the attitude of the Bush administration brought to North Korea," said the spokesman, adding, "North Korea can never fall victim to the Bush administration's move to justify its wrong assertion."
The six-party talks, which involve the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, on dismantling North Korean atomic programs remain stalled by disputes over the issues of "uranium enrichment" and "nuclear proliferation".
North Korea has said it gave the US a list of its nuclear programs in November, but the US says it still awaits a "complete and correct " declaration.
(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2008)
