North Korea will not abandon its nuclear weapons despite its agreement to come back to six-party talks on its atomic ambitions, a senior North Korean diplomat said Wednesday.
"The (six-party) talks will begin soon... how can we abandon our nuclear weapons? Do you mean that we conducted a nuclear test to give them up?," the North's first vice foreign minister Kang Sok-ju told a group of reporters at Beijing international airport while passing through the Chinese capital from Russia.
Kang also said the U.S. should lift its financial sanctions against the North.
His remarks strongly indicate that the communist state has no plans to get rid of its nuclear weapons although it has agreed to return to the multilateral talks.
South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia are the other participants in the negotiations. In September last year, the country agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and economic aid, but it boycotted the talks two months later in response to U.S. financial sanctions over its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.
On Oct. 9, the communist state conducted its first nuclear test, sparking international condemnation that led to United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.
Asked about any plans to meet Chinese officials, Kang said none were planned and that he would fly home later in the day.
Beijing, Nov. 22 (Yonhap News)
Pyongyang will not abandon nuclear weapons, senior official says |
