North Korea's military vowed Monday to keep atomic weapons until the United States removes its nuclear threat, reiterating a tough stance amid stalled disarmament talks. "The DPRK (North Korea) will never 'dismantle its nuclear weapons' unless nukes in South Korea are dismantled to remove the nuclear threat from the US," a spokesman for the North's General Chiefs of Staff was quoted as saying by the official Korea Central News Agency.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitors media in the communist state, said the spokesman's statement was carried on state television. The spokesman said denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula does not only mean disarmament of the North but should also include verification of alleged nuclear facilities in South Korea, according to KCNA.
South Korea denies having any atomic weapons. "There are no nuclear weapons in South Korea," defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told Yonhap. The foreign ministry in Pyongyang, staking out a tough position for the incoming US administration, took a similar stance last month.
It said it may not give up its atomic weaponry even if ties with Washington are established, until the US completely removes its nuclear threat. A six-nation deal signed in February 2007 offers the North energy aid, normalised ties with Washington and Tokyo and a permanent peace pact if it dismantles its atomic plants and hands over all nuclear weapons and material.
But the disarmament talks are stalled by disagreements over how the North's declared nuclear activities should be verified. The North has said it should have the right to verify that US nuclear weapons have been withdrawn from South Korea - something which the US said happened in 1991. The spokesman for the General Chiefs of Staff also called for disarmament negotiations to be held between nuclear powers, in an apparent demand for bilateral talks with the United States.
"The (South Korean President) Lee (Myung-Bak) group should know well that the only way of eliminating nukes under the present situation where the hostile relations persist is for those parties concerned that have nukes to opt for nuclear disarmament simultaneously," he said. North Korea, which staged an atomic test in 2006, demands to be treated as a nuclear power but the US and South Korea refuse to give it this status. The forum groups the two Koreas, China, Russia, the US and Japan.