North Korea: No nuclear weapons if U.S. treats nation as friend

[struggle4progress]

The Associated Press

advertisement

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Wednesday it would not need nuclear weapons if the United States treated it like a friend, as the isolated nation joined South Korea for high-level reconciliation talks.

The bilateral meeting was shadowed by the international standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions.

"If the United States treats the North in a friendly manner, we will possess not one nuclear weapon," the North Korean delegation said, according to Kim Chun-shick, spokesman for the South Koreans.

The statement echoed a pledge by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who met Friday with visiting South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and said Pyongyang could return to international nuclear disarmament talks as soon as next month if it gets appropriate respect from Washington. <snip>

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/062205_korea.php

[xray s]

1. We should get the hell out of Korea

We should close our bases in South Korea and tell the North and South Koreans to work out their future on their own.

[meppie-meppie not]

3. yes but that wouldn't work with US hegemony.

:hide:

[Career Prole]

4. Got that right! n/t

[NNN0LHI]

12. Try naming the only country that the US has left after once occupying it

Vietnam. It is a rare occurrence indeed.

Don

[daleo]

2. "Not one nuclear weapon"

But maybe ten or twenty. Perhaps North Korea has learned the Bushspeak trick of lying with the truth.

[struggle4progress]

5. Or perhaps they are saying clearly that Bushista threats have been ..

.. forcing them into the nuclear camp ...

[Miss Chybil]

6. It's worked hasn't it? I mean we haven't attacked them. They really

do have WMD. Bush new all along Saddam didn't have any. If he did, we'd not be at war today.

[renaissanceguy]

14. War is peace, etc.

It's 1984, after all.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/673103

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.21272885

[daleo]

8. Assuming they have nuclear weapons

I can't see them giving them up for Bush's sake. So Bush's threats haven't worked. I don't doubt they will parse their language carefully (like Israel does) on the nuclear matter from now on.

[mom cat]

10. If we had kept our original agreement with them for a non-weapons grade

nuclear power plant and for the humanitarian assistance that they desperately needed, they never would have had to build even one nuclear weapon. It seems however like that was the only thing that would get Washington's attention.

[LynnTheDem]

7. Only one problem, N Korea; the USA cannot be trusted.

Thought the world had learned that lesson many times over by now.

[slackmaster]

9. They must really love us

They'll be our friend for long time.

[ckramer]

11. If you didn't have nuclear weapons, you would be Iraq now.

Kim Jong Il are you on drugs?

Oh well maybe this is just another trick he plays to fool bush.

[NNN0LHI]

13. US pledges North Korean food aid - 6/22/05

The United States has promised impoverished North Korea 50,000 metric tonnes of food aid but denied the gift was linked nuclear arms talks.

It will be the third year in a row the US has donated aid, to be distributed through the UN World Food Programme.

"It is a humanitarian act based on need," the US state department said.

However analysts said they believed the timing was clearly linked to attempts to draw the North back into six-sided talks on its nuclear programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4121800.stm