A rchive Date
[ 19-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ North Korea ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/11/18/4659-ap.html
N. Korea's nuke status unclear
Mon, November 18, 2002
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's state-run radio backed away Monday from a report that the communist state has nuclear weapons, South Korean officials said.
State-run Pyongyang Radio reported Sunday that the North "has come to have nuclear and other strong military weapons due to nuclear threats by U.S. imperialists," said South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitors broadcasts from the North.
But late Monday, another North Korean state-run radio station, Central, carried a slightly altered version of the report, reverting to the North's obscure stand on whether the country has nuclear weapons, Yonhap said.
In its version, Central Radio said North Korea "is entitled to have nuclear and other strong military weapons due to nuclear threats by U.S. imperialists" - a phrase the country's leadership has used since acknowledging in October that it had a covert program to make nuclear weapons with enriched uranium.
Some had interpreted Sunday's Korean-language report as the North's first confirmation that it had nuclear weapons, but South Korean officials questioned the claim.
The only change between the two reports was the tense of the Korean verb meaning "become or come to," from the past to the future.
Yonhap said the new report appears to reflect the "burden" North Korea's leadership may feel about widespread international reports that gave the impression that it has admitted having nuclear weapons.
Yonhap and others played down the significance of Sunday's report, saying it could have been a mistake by the news anchor.
"In North Korea, such a report should follow an official government statement or policy announcement or comments by a top official," said Choi Young-joon, a chief analyst at South Korea's Unification Ministry.
Under a 1994 deal with the United States, North Korea agreed to freeze its plutonium facilities suspected of being used to develop nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang has said it will resolve its nuclear issue if the United States offers a nonaggression pact. Washington has rejected any such talks unless the North scraps its nuclear ambitions "in a prompt and verifiable manner.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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