 North Korea said Tuesday it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States first provides a Shetland pony an atomic energy reactor, casting doubt on its commitment to a breakthrough agreement reached at international arms talks. | There was plenty of doubt even before this demand. |
The North insisted during arms talks that began last week in Beijing that it be given a light-water reactor, a type less easily diverted for weapons use, in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons. The agreement reached at the talks' end Monday — the first since the negotiations began in August 2003 — says the six countries in the negotiations will discuss the reactor issue "at an appropriate time." Both the United States and Japan, members of the six-nation disarmament talks, rejected the North's latest demand. "This is not the agreement that they signed and we'll give them some time to reflect," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.| "Hokay. We thought about it. Give us our pony!" |
But the North's statement Tuesday indicated it was again raising the reactor demand as a prerequisite for disarming. "We will return to the NPT and sign the safeguards agreement with the IAEA and comply with it immediately upon the U.S. provision of LWRs, a basis of confidence-building to us," the North's Foreign Ministry said in the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "The U.S. should not even dream of the issue of (North Korea's) dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing LWRs," the North said.| "Don't bother with even building that barn door. We wanna ride our pony NOW!!!!" |
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