People's Democracy

DPRK Quits Six-Party Talks, Asks US To Give Up Hostile Policy  

THROUGH a statement issued on February 10, the ministry of foreign affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has clarified the country’s stand on the grave situation created by the US’s hostile policy toward the DPRK.

According to the statement, during its second term the Bush administration’s intention to isolate and stifle the DPRK at any cost has become quite clear.

As the ministry has clarified more than once, the country justly urged the US to renounce its hostile policy toward the DPRK, with the aim of seeking a  “regime change” in the latter. The DPRK has been urging the US to switch its policy to that of peaceful co-existence between the two countries. The DPRK has, with patience, also been closely following what policy the Bush regime adopts in its second term, and has also made it clear that it would be possible to solve the nuclear issue, too, if the Bush administration adopts a policy of peaceful co-existence.

However, the DPRK ministry said, the Bush administration turned down its just request and adopted no co-existence with the DPRK as its policy. The US stand towards the DPRK became clear from the president’s inaugural address, from the State of the Union address and also from the speech made by the secretary of state at the Congress hearing to get its approval, among other things.

The DPRK categorically says the true intention of the Bush administration in its second term is to further escalate its policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK, as it was doing in its first term. The Bush administration has declared a new ideological stand-off, aimed at a “regime change” in the DPRK while talking much about a “peaceful and diplomatic solution” to the nuclear issue and the “resumption of the six-party talks.” This is meant to mislead the world public opinion.

The DPRK statement said it has clarified in the past the country’s stand that it would not pursue anti-Americanism; rather it would treat the US as a friendly nation if it does not slander the DPRK’s political system or interfere in its internal affairs. It has since then made every possible effort to settle the nuclear issue and improve the bilateral relations.

But the US interpreted this as a sign of weakness, has been railing against the DPRK’s political system and wantonly interfering in its internal affairs.

Turning down the DPRK’s request to roll back its hostile anti-DPRK policy as a major stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue, the US always treated the DPRK as an enemy and identified it with “tyranny.” This deprived the DPRK of any justification to negotiate with the US and participate in the six-party talks.

The statement describes as “self-contradictory and unreasonable” the US stand that the DPRK must come to the negotiating table while it negates the dialogue partner. “This is the height of impudence,” the statement says. In such a situation, the DPRK ministry of foreign affairs says that if the US wants to, it can well negotiate with the organisation of N Korean defectors on its payroll.

The statement also noted that Japan too is persistently pursuing a hostile policy towards the DPRK, toeing the US line.      

Moreover, in a bid to nullify the DPRK-Japan’s joint Pyongyang declaration and scuttle any process to normalise diplomatic relations with the DPRK, Japan has fabricated the issue of false remains over and above the “abduction issue” that was already settled. “How can we sit at the negotiating table with such a party?” the statement wonders.

It is the trend of the century and the wish of humankind to strive for peace, co-existence and prosperity, irrespective of differences in ideologies, systems and beliefs. Moreover, it is by no means fortuitous that the world people have raised their voice censoring the Bush administration’s tyranny, which is prompted by its extreme misanthropy and is against the world trend.

The DPRK statement says the country has shown utmost patience for the past four years since the first Bush administration was sworn in, and cannot spend another four years repeating the same thing.

As for coping with the grave situation created by the US’s hostile policy toward the DPRK, the latter has said the following.

1. The DPRK is very much in favour of six-party talks but is compelled to suspend participation in the talks for an indefinite period. The country wants to be sure that there is justification for it to attend these talks and that there is an atmosphere for it, so that it may expect positive results from the talks.

The present deadlock in the six-party talks is to be attributed to the US’s hostile policy toward the DPRK.

Right now, there is no justification for the country to participate in the six-party talks as the Bush administration has termed the DPRK, a dialogue partner, an “outpost of tyranny.”

2. The US has bared its intention to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear strike. This compelled the DPRK to take steps to acquire nuclear weapons, so as to protect its sovereignty.

On the occasion, the DPRK ministry of foreign affairs also reminded that the country has already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the NPT and officially declared, for the first time, that it has manufactured nukes for self-defence. This step, the country says, was necessary to cope with the Bush administration’s increasingly undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK. However, the DPRK says its nuclear weapons are only a nuclear deterrence and are meant for self-defence under all circumstances.

The ministry ends its statement with the promise that, in any case, the DPRK’s principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue, and its ultimate goal to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, remain unchanged.