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State Dept puzzled by PRC casting doubt on Kimâs nukes
excerpted from State Department Daily Press BriefingQUESTION: Have you seen the story this morning about China casting doubt on the U.S. insistence that North Korea has a uranium bomb program? MR. BOUCHER: We saw the story and, frankly, we find the Assistant Foreign Ministerâs comments somewhat puzzling. We have made clear over time that there is very conclusive information that North Korea has a covert uranium enrichment program. North Korea, at that time, acknowledged that it was pursuing uranium enrichment. Since that time, North Korea has withdrawn from the NPT, Non-Proliferation Treaty. They have restarted activities geared to the production of plutonium-based weapons. They have asserted their so-called right to develop nuclear weapons. Moreover, the recent revelations by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan provided additional information about North Koreaâs pursuit of nuclear weapons. So, certainly there can be no doubt that North Koreanâs nuclear activities represent a clear threat and they violate several important international agreements as well as the commitments that North Korea has made to the past -- in the past. So we really do think it is up to the North Koreans to demonstrate that they are willing to completely and irreversibly abandon their nuclear programs through a verifiable dismantlement of all the elements of those efforts. Posted by: Super Hose 2004-06-10 |
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