Defiance on nuclear arms

NORTH Korea told the UN disarmament forum yesterday it would never bow to resolutions on its nuclear programme and that prospects for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula were "gloomy” because of a hostile US policy.

"The US and their followers are sadly mistaken if they miscalculate that the DPRK would respect the entirely unreasonable resolutions against it. The DPRK will never bow to any resolutions,” the first secretary of North Korea’s mission in Geneva, Jon Yong Ryong, told the Conference on Disarmament, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

"If Seoul truly wants peace and security on the Korean peninsula, it should urge the US first to terminate its hostile policy towards DPRK on an impartial basis,” he said. North Korea conducted its third nuclear test yesterday in defiance of UN resolutions, drawing condemnation from the United States, Japan, Europe and Pyongyang’s only major ally, China.

US disarmament ambassador Laura Kennedy, addressing the Geneva forum, said: "I find it just an incredible contrast that while millions of people are celebrating the Spring Festival, a time which should be a time to celebrate peace and prosperity, that North Korea celebrates it by a third nuclear weapons test.”

South Korean ambassador Kwon Haeryong said in a speech that North Korea was the "only country which has demonstrated blatant disregard by conducting nuclear tests” since a 1996 global treaty banning them was negotiated at the forum. – Reuters