N. Korea Opens Door to Nuclear Facilities Pact

North Korea will sign an agreement on international inspection of its nuclear facilities once the United States begins withdrawing its nuclear weapons from South Korea, Chu Chang Jun, North Korea’s ambassador to China, stressed at a news conference here Wednesday.

The Bush Administration has already announced its intent to remove all U.S. nuclear arms from South Korea, so the North Korean statement may open the door for an agreement that could put a stop to what Washington believes is an effort by Pyongyang to build nuclear weapons.

At his news conference, Chu released the full text of a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement first issued Monday evening in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Chu said he was giving a news conference in Beijing because the statement in Pyongyang had not received enough international attention.

The North Korean statement contained four key points:

* Pyongyang “will sign the nuclear safeguards accord (with the International Atomic Energy Agency) when the United States begins to withdraw its nuclear weapons from South Korea.”

* “Inspection to verify whether U.S. nuclear weapons are present in South Korea or not, and inspection of our nuclear facilities shall be made simultaneously.”

* “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-United States negotiations should be held to discuss simultaneous nuclear inspection and removal of nuclear danger to us.”

* “Since the north and the south expressed the same intention not to develop nuclear weapons and to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, they should hold north-south negotiations for its realization.”

Chu said the statement is important because it sets a time frame for Pyongyang to sign the nuclear safeguard agreement and because it proposes topics for negotiations with Seoul and Washington.

In Seoul, the South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a brief statement saying North Korea’s latest comment “shows the possibility of a change” in its stand on inspections, the Associated Press reported. In the past, the north has said it would allow inspections only after all U.S. weapons were withdrawn from South Korea.

“We think the North Korean statement has nothing new in that it attaches conditions which have nothing to do with obligations North Korea has as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the Foreign Ministry said.

North Korea signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1985, but it has refused to allow the inspections required by the pact.

“But we note that the statement shows the possibility of a change in policy,” the ministry added.

The statement said South Korea will issue a formal response soon. Three South Korean newspapers reported Wednesday that Seoul would agree to simultaneous inspections of nuclear facilities if North Korea signed a nuclear safeguard agreement permitting international inspections.

South Korean President Roh Tae Woo said this month that Seoul would not manufacture, possess or use nuclear weapons. Roh urged North Korea to join in pledging to create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

The United States believes that North Korea is trying to develop nuclear weapons at a research site in Yongbyon, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. Signing of a nuclear safeguard agreement would allow the IAEA to inspect this site to ensure that any weapons development has stopped.

Chu did not give a precise answer when asked whether Pyongyang will insist, before signing the nuclear safeguard agreement, that there be proof or inspection showing that the United States has begun to withdraw its nuclear weapons from the south. Instead, he stressed that in Pyongyang’s view, the issue now is primarily a matter of American trustworthiness.

“It depends on whether the United States keeps its word or not,” Chu said. “If it keeps its word, then things will be OK. Let’s see what kind of action the United States will take. . . . It is not enough for the United States to say that it will withdraw its nuclear weapons. It must actually start to withdraw them.”

Chu said that the Korean people “have very bad feelings about the trustworthiness of the United States.”

“Because of the United States, we are still not able to reunify our country,” he asserted. “Because of the United States, brothers and sisters are separated. The United States deployed nuclear weapons in South Korea that are hundreds or thousands of times stronger than the power of the nuclear weapons the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We have very strong feelings about the United States.

“But we are not seeing only the past,” he added. “We have to see the future, too. If the people of the United States can have good feelings toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, if they take a good position and respect the sovereignty and independence of our country, then we have the intention to form ties with the people and with the United States.”

Nuclear Police

Key provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons:

No transfer of nuclear weapons to other countries.

No assistance to another country in developing a nuclear weapon.

Nations without nuclear weapons will not seek to acquire or manufacture them.

Nations without nuclear weapons agree to allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify their compliance with the treaty.