North Korea is "highly likely" to go ahead with its plans to test a nuclear weapon if efforts by South Korea and the United States to lure the communist state back to international negotiations over its nuclear ambitions fail, South Korea's point man on North Korea said Wednesday.
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said there were no definite signs of an impending nuclear test in the North, but said Pyongyang is likely to conduct a nuclear test if the talks are not resumed.
In a Foreign Ministry statement released Tuesday, North Korea said it would "conduct a nuclear test" in the future to bolster its war deterrent against what it called threats of U.S. aggression.
"(The government) believes the (North Korean) statement is aimed at pressuring the United States to change its stance" toward the North, the unification minister told the National Assembly committee on foreign affairs and unification.
"However, (the government) believes there is a high possibility of a nuclear test if the efforts to resume the six-party talks end in failure," he said.
Still, the unification minister said his country was not taking any additional or extraordinary steps at the moment.
"Considering that no actual signs of a nuclear test are being detected, the government plans to work to prevent the current situation from getting worse," he told the parliamentary committee also attended by Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung.
However, the defense minister said his ministry was placing more weight on the possibility of a nuclear test and working accordingly.
"We are working to come up with countermeasures with significant weight on the possibility" of a nuclear test, Yoon told the National Assembly committee.
When asked whether the country is able to detect preparations for a nuclear test in the communist state, the defense minister said the country is able to monitor "activities outside" of a test site, but no movements underground.
On the possibility of the U.S. launching a strike on North Korea if it were to push ahead with a nuclear test, Yoon said "we will manage the situation to prevent such incidents from taking place."
"We'll make efforts diplomatically and politically to avoid such a result. We'll also review all possible scenarios for the sake of public safety and security on the peninsula." The defense ministry is particularly on edge over North Korea's next move as the threat comes at a time when South Korea and the U.S. are in the middle of negotiations over the transfer of South Korea's wartime operational command of its troops.
The two sides aim to finalize the timeline for the transfer at an annual meeting of their defense chiefs in Washington on Oct. 20-21. But North Korea's latest nuclear threat could shelve the negotiations because of divided public opinion, according to observers.
"The discussion about South Korea's sole exercise of wartime control should stop immediately as North Korea's nuclear test is only a matter of time," said Rep. Kang Jae-sup, chairman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP).
Kang said GNP lawmakers will grill the defense minister and other officials over the issue at a two-day parliamentary inspection of the ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff next week.
Defense officials are concerned that the ministry's negotiating power will be drastically weakened if North Korea acts on the nuclear threat, and that it may have to indefinitely postpone the discussion over the timing of the transfer because public opinion will become less favorable.
"We will keenly heed the situation as we are not sure yet how North Korea's declaration will affect the outcome of the upcoming Security Consultative Meeting," a defense official said, asking to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to talk to the press.
Seoul, Oct. 4 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea likely to test nuclear weapon unless six-way talks resume: minister |
