Funkninja
Member
N.Korea Sees UN Sanctions as 'Declaration of War'
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) on Friday warned the Security Council against punishing it with sanctions for pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying it would view this as a declaration of war.
Pyongyang's U.N. envoy, Ambassador Pak Gil Yon, also told reporters the United States had shown a lack of sincerity in offering to hold talks on his country's nuclear program without being willing to engage in full negotiations.
"The United States now says that we may talk to you (about) how to comply with the international obligations but we will not negotiate with you. I think this is not a sincere attitude of negotiators," he said.
Pak called a rare news conference at U.N. headquarters after formally informing the Security Council that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea was immediately pulling out of the nonproliferation pact, aimed at checking the global spread of nuclear arms.
Pyongyang has also recently ejected inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, and shut down U.N. surveillance cameras at its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, which are capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium for making nuclear bombs.
U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) regretted the decision to withdraw from the pact and strongly urged Pyongyang to reconsider, a spokesman said.
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France, which chairs the Security Council this month, had said earlier on Friday in Shanghai: "The U.N. Security Council will have to address this new development.
"Our goal is clear. We have to make sure that North Korea will comply with its nonproliferation commitments," he said.
But in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director-general, signaled they were in no hurry for the council to take up the matter.
"It will ultimately have to go to the Security Council. When and through what process and what one would ask the Security Council to do at that time remains to be determined," Powell told reporters after talks with ElBaradei.
Council members generally agreed, saying the 15-nation group should take up the matter, but not for some weeks.
"I think the IAEA is dealing with it. and the IAEA should continue," Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov told reporters.
Pak told reporters: "We consider even now any kind of economic sanctions to be taken by the Security Council of the United Nations (news - web sites) against the DPRK as a declaration of war."
However, asked how North Korea would respond to such an action, he said this "will depend on the circumstances."
"I cannot predict anything," he said.
Asked if North Korea was on heightened alert for possible military action, he said the Korean peninsula was peaceful at this time and his country had always maintained that the nuclear issue "should be resolved through negotiations by peaceful means by the DPRK and the United States."
Pak rejected negotiating with the IAEA, the global agency in charge of monitoring the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which he dismissed as "a tool" of the U.S. government.
He said Pyongyang would use its nuclear program only to generate electricity.
But if there were to be a plan for verifying this, that now would have to be worked out in bilateral talks with the United States rather than through the IAEA, he said.
Pak dismissed a concern that treaty rules required 60 days' notice before a country could withdraw, saying Pyongyang had initially signaled it was pulling out back in 1993.
"From tomorrow -- immediately -- our withdrawal will be enforced," he said.
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) on Friday warned the Security Council against punishing it with sanctions for pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying it would view this as a declaration of war.
Pyongyang's U.N. envoy, Ambassador Pak Gil Yon, also told reporters the United States had shown a lack of sincerity in offering to hold talks on his country's nuclear program without being willing to engage in full negotiations.
"The United States now says that we may talk to you (about) how to comply with the international obligations but we will not negotiate with you. I think this is not a sincere attitude of negotiators," he said.
Pak called a rare news conference at U.N. headquarters after formally informing the Security Council that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea was immediately pulling out of the nonproliferation pact, aimed at checking the global spread of nuclear arms.
Pyongyang has also recently ejected inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, and shut down U.N. surveillance cameras at its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, which are capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium for making nuclear bombs.
U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) regretted the decision to withdraw from the pact and strongly urged Pyongyang to reconsider, a spokesman said.
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France, which chairs the Security Council this month, had said earlier on Friday in Shanghai: "The U.N. Security Council will have to address this new development.
"Our goal is clear. We have to make sure that North Korea will comply with its nonproliferation commitments," he said.
But in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director-general, signaled they were in no hurry for the council to take up the matter.
"It will ultimately have to go to the Security Council. When and through what process and what one would ask the Security Council to do at that time remains to be determined," Powell told reporters after talks with ElBaradei.
Council members generally agreed, saying the 15-nation group should take up the matter, but not for some weeks.
"I think the IAEA is dealing with it. and the IAEA should continue," Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov told reporters.
Pak told reporters: "We consider even now any kind of economic sanctions to be taken by the Security Council of the United Nations (news - web sites) against the DPRK as a declaration of war."
However, asked how North Korea would respond to such an action, he said this "will depend on the circumstances."
"I cannot predict anything," he said.
Asked if North Korea was on heightened alert for possible military action, he said the Korean peninsula was peaceful at this time and his country had always maintained that the nuclear issue "should be resolved through negotiations by peaceful means by the DPRK and the United States."
Pak rejected negotiating with the IAEA, the global agency in charge of monitoring the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which he dismissed as "a tool" of the U.S. government.
He said Pyongyang would use its nuclear program only to generate electricity.
But if there were to be a plan for verifying this, that now would have to be worked out in bilateral talks with the United States rather than through the IAEA, he said.
Pak dismissed a concern that treaty rules required 60 days' notice before a country could withdraw, saying Pyongyang had initially signaled it was pulling out back in 1993.
"From tomorrow -- immediately -- our withdrawal will be enforced," he said.
