SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said yesterday that it had already explained enough about its nuclear programs to meet a deadline for declaring its nuclear activities, saying the information was in a declaration it prepared in November and gave to the United States.
The statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry yesterday was carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's voice to the outside world.
It was the country's first official pronouncement after it missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang. Other nations involved in six-nation talks said North Korea also failed to provide a full list of its nuclear activities, including weapons, facilities and fissile material.
The statement said North Korea had already conducted “enough discussions” with the U.S. officials after they demanded more negotiations on its November draft declaration. Using the abbreviation of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Foreign Ministry said, “As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, the DPRK has done what it should do.”
In Washington, officials disputed North Korea's assertions, saying the government in Pyongyang had not yet provided a declaration. They muted their criticism, however, and said the issue had not reached an impasse.
“The North Koreans know what's expected of them and what the rest of the parties are looking for, and that is a full and complete and accurate declaration of their nuclear activity,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
The chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, left Washington yesterday for China, where the status of North Korea's adherence to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear weapons program will be the focus of a new round of negotiations. An administration official said the North Korean statement followed a pattern of public posturing in advance of new talks.
Since the passing of the deadline, agreed on in October, the United States, South Korea and Japan have criticized the North and called for details on how much plutonium it produced at Yongbyon, whether it had provided nuclear assistance to Syria and what it had done with tons of aluminum tubes it bought from Russia.
