North Korea Nuclear Drama Escalates by BBC News 5:14pm 10th Jan, 2003   Friday, 10 January, 2003    North Korea says it is withdrawing immediately from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to control the spread of nuclear technology internationally.    The official Korean Central News Agency said that, although Pyongyang was pulling out of the NPT, it had no intention of producing nuclear weapons.    "Our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," the statement said on Friday.    US governor Bill Richardson is meeting North Korean diplomats. But the BBC's Charles Scanlon in Tokyo says the decision will be seen as a very serious escalation.    International concern over North Korea's intentions has been growing since it expelled two UN inspectors last month, and re-activated some of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.    The announcement came as talks got under way in the US state of New Mexico between two North Korean diplomats and a former US ambassador.    The meeting is not officially sponsored by the Bush administration but has its support.    North Korea also recently announced it was ready to hold talks with the South Korean Government.    Serious escalation    North Korea denounced what it called US aggression, saying: "We can no longer remain bound to the treaty, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon."    CRISIS CHRONOLOGY    16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US says    14 Nov: Oil shipments to N Korea halted    22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon nuclear plant    26 Dec: UN says 1,000 fuel rods have been moved to the plant    31 Dec: UN nuclear inspectors leave North Korea    6 Jan: IAEA demands inspectors be readmitted and secret weapons programme halted    7 Jan: US "willing to talk" to North Korea    Timeline of tensions    North Korea last withdrew from the NPT in 1993, provoking a dangerous confrontation with the United States. It later suspended the decision and entered talks.    Experts do not take seriously the claim that Pyongyang's nuclear programme is designed to produce electricity - the Yongbyon reactor is too small and could only produce a negligible amount of power.    It is believed the North could produce enough plutonium for five or six nuclear bombs by May.    Our correspondent says fears are growing that North Korea has decided nuclear weapons are the best guarantee of security and, with the US preoccupied with Iraq, now is the best opportunity to get them.    But a North Korean diplomat in Beijing said Pyongyang would "reconsider" its withdrawal from the NPT if the US resumed shipments of fuel oil.    The US, European Union, South Korea and Japan agreed in November to halt the shipments to North Korea from December to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear programme.    Mediator    Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations a now governor of New Mexico, has taken on the role of mediator in the crisis.    "I want to be able to help my country," said Mr Richardson, who visited North Korea on two diplomatic missions while he was still a member of Congress during the 1990s.    He said he had known one of the visiting envoys, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the UN, Han Song Ryol, since he worked with him in 1994 to free an American accused of spying in North Korea.    "We have a healthy respect for each other, totally disagreeing with each other's policies," Mr Richardson said.    The Bush administration stressed Mr Richardson would not be speaking on behalf of the US Government, despite being briefed by the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell.    Officials also emphasised that he would not negotiate on Washington's insistence that North Korea halt its nuclear programme.    Washington had to give special permission for the North Koreans to travel to the US, as Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.    Thaw    South Korea has said it will use its own meeting with the North later this month to ask it to rethink its nuclear programme.    President Kim Dae-jung and his government believe dialogue is the best way to tackle the nuclear controversy.    Our Washington correspondent says the news of the meeting in the US is a sign that the Bush administration may have come to the same conclusion.    The US had earlier said it would not engage in dialogue unless Pyongyang first scrapped its nuclear programme.    But after talks with South Korean and Japanese diplomats, it reversed its decision.    Bill Richardson has already seen success as a diplomatic troubleshooter, having negotiated the freedom of Americans in North Korea, Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere.    N Korea quits nuclear treaty: Text.    North Korea has announced that it is immediately pulling out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.    Following is the text of a report by the North Korean official news agency KCNA, which carried the announcement.    The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in a statement today declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its total freedom from the binding force of the safeguards accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).    The statement was issued as regards the fact that a grave situation where the sovereignty of the Korean nation and the DPRK's security are seriously violated is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula, owing to the US vicious hostile policy towards the DPRK.    Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons    In the statement the DPRK Government vehemently rejected the 6 January "resolution" of the IAEA, considering it as a grave encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and the dignity of the Korean nation.    The statement further says: As it has become clear once again that the US persistently seeks to stifle the DPRK at any cost and the IAEA is used as a tool for executing the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, we can no longer remain bound to the NPT, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon.    No IAEA monitoring    Under the grave situation where our state's supreme interests are most seriously threatened, the DPRK Government adopts the following decisions to protect the sovereignty of the country and the nation and their right to existence and dignity:    Firstly, the DPRK Government declares an automatic and immediate effectuation of its withdrawal from the NPT, on which "it unilaterally announced a moratorium as long as it deemed necessary," according to the 11 June, 1993, DPRK-US joint statement, now that the US has unilaterally abandoned its commitments to stop nuclear threat and renounce hostility towards the DPRK, in line with the same statement.    Secondly, it declares that the DPRK, withdrawing from the NPT, is totally free from the binding force of the safeguards accord with the IAEA under its Article 3.    'Self-defensive measure'    The withdrawal from the NPT is a legitimate self-defensive measure taken against the US moves to stifle the DPRK and the unreasonable behaviour of the IAEA following the US. Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity.    If the US drops its hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and stops its nuclear threat to it, the DPRK may prove through a separate verification between the DPRK and the US that it does not make any nuclear weapon.    The United States and the IAEA will never evade their responsibilities for compelling the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT, by ignoring the DPRK's last efforts to seek a peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue through negotiations.    BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.    UN News Centre: Annan regrets DPR of Korea's decision to withdraw from nuclear weapons treaty. Secretary-General Kofi Annan    10 January – Following the announcement by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he regretted the move and strongly urged Pyongyang to reconsider its decision.    "While noting the denial by the DPRK of any intentions to acquire nuclear weapons, the Secretary-General stresses the importance of adhering to Treaties and their legal obligations in achieving international peace and security in accordance with international law," said a statement issued by a UN spokesman in New York. "He takes this opportunity to reiterate that the problems regarding DPRK's nuclear programme must be resolved through peaceful dialogue."    The statement described the NPT as the lynchpin of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, "and with 188 States Parties is the most widely subscribed to multilateral treaty in this area." It also noted that no state party has ever withdrawn from the accord in the 33 years since its entry into force. Visit the related web page
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