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Text: North Korean speech
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Following is the text of a speech by North Korea's vice minister of foreign affairs, Kim Yong Il, at the six-country nuclear talks in Beijing, as published by the North's official KCNA news agency. The English-language statement refers to North Korea as the DPRK, the acronym of the communist state's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. TEXT OF SPEECH: The demilitarization of the Korean peninsula is the general goal of the DPRK. It is not our goal to have nuclear weapons. The demilitarization of the Korean peninsula was our initiative and it is our consistent stand and the desire of all Koreans to realize it. The U.S. is, however, standing in its way. If the nuclear issue between the two countries is to be peacefully settled through dialogue the U.S. should make a radical switchover in its policy toward the DPRK. This is a master key to and a precondition for the settlement of the nuclear issue. The Bush administration openly disclosed its attempt to use nuclear weapons after listing the DPRK as part of "an axis of evil" and a target of a "preemptive nuclear attack." This prompted us to judge that the Bush administration is going to stifle our system by force and decide to build a strong deterrent force to cope with it. Hence, we determined to possess that force. Our deterrent force is not aimed to attack somebody without any proper reason. It is a means for self-defence to protect our sovereignty. We can dismantle our nuclear programme if the U.S. makes a switchover in its hostile policy towards us and does not pose any threat to us. The benchmark for our judgment that the U.S. no longer antagonizes us will be provided only when a non-aggression treaty is concluded between the DPRK and the U.S., diplomatic relations opened between them and the U.S. does not obstruct our economic dealing with other countries. The non-aggression treaty called for by us is by no means to demand "security assurances," but to have a non-aggression treaty with legal biding force whereby both signatories commit themselves to non-aggression. The U.S. can not shirk its responsibility for having suspended the implementation of the Agreed Framework. We have fully fulfilled our commitment to freeze our nuclear facility since the adoption of the agreed framework. (Assistant Secretary of State James) Kelly who came to the DPRK as a special envoy of President Bush in October 2002, failing to present any specific "evidence," groundlessly pulled us up, using coercive words and rudely behaving, ignoring the oriental custom. He claimed that we have secretly pushed forward an enriched uranium programme in breach of the Agreed Framework. In this regard we made it clear that we have no secret nuclear programme but we are entitled to have weapons more powerful than those based on enriched uranium. We have powerful weapons, including single-hearted unity. After Kelly's Pyongyang visit, the U.S. misled the public opinion, saying that we admitted to the secret nuclear programme and unilaterally stopped the supply of heavy fuel oil from November, 2002. The DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework concluded in October 1994 was thus nullified due to the U.S. unilateral refusal to fulfill its commitments. The DPRK should not make nuclear weapons and allow the nuclear inspection, finally dismantle its nuclear facility, put on ice the missile testfire and stop its export. According to the order of simultaneous actions, the U.S. should resume the supply of heavy fuel oil, sharply increase the humanitarian food aid while the DPRK should declare its will to scrap its nuclear programme. According to this order, we will allow the refreeze of our nuclear facility and nuclear substance and monitoring and inspection of them from the time the U.S. has concluded a non-aggression treaty with the DPRK and compensated for the loss of electricity. We will settle the missile issue when diplomatic relations are opened between the DPRK and the U.S. and between the DPRK and Japan. And we will dismantle our nuclear facility from the time the light water reactors are completed. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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