South Korea Renounces Nuclear Arms and Roh Urges North to Do the Same

President Roh Tae Woo said Friday that South Korea has renounced the manufacture, possession and use of nuclear weapons, and called upon North Korea to do the same and to allow inspection of its nuclear program.

“The Republic of Korea will use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes, and will not manufacture, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons,” Roh said in an unexpected speech that was televised live. “Now there can be no reason or justification for North Korea to develop nuclear weapons or evade international inspection of its facilities.”

Roh also said South Korea would join international efforts to ban chemical and biological weapons and that his country “will not possess nuclear fuel reprocessing and enrichment facilities.”

The announcement, coming shortly after admission of both Koreas to the United Nations, increases the sense of momentum toward major change on the Korean Peninsula, where 65 million people sharing a common language and culture have been divided into two hostile nations for four decades.

In Washington, the State Department welcomed Roh’s statement and said the United States hopes that “North Korea will respond positively to this initiative by taking corresponding measures.”

Roh’s declaration follows directly from President Bush’s recent decision to withdraw U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea; the U.S. nuclear weapons are the only ones in this country.

The Korean Peninsula has been called the last bastion of the Cold War because the north and south maintain large, well-equipped armies facing one another across the Demilitarized Zone.

North Korea has denied that it is developing nuclear weapons, but has refused to permit international inspection of its nuclear facilities.