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Pyongyang admits to n-deterrent plan

By P. S. Suryanarayana

STRIDENT STAND: The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, with military officials during an inspection tour of troops at an undisclosed location in this April 27, 2003, file picture.

SINGAPORE JUNE 9. For the first time, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or the North) has acknowledged that it was pursuing a nuclear weapons programme to build a "deterrent force" against the United States.

The open admission was indirectly but definitively purveyed today through a commentary by the official news agency. This confirmed the disclosures made so far by the United States, whose diplomats had in recent months quoted the DPRK interlocutors as saying that Pyongyang was engaged in producing nuclear weapons.

North Korea's affirmation predictably raised security concerns across the Asia-Pacific region, though there was no question of any shock waves as such, given that Pyongyang's plan was already an open secret.

Not surprisingly in this peculiar climate of opinion in East Asia, the South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, who today concluded a visit to Japan, told parliamentarians in Tokyo of his country's preference for a peaceful resolution of the DPRK's nuclear brinkmanship.

While supporting the idea of a diplomatic solution, Japan has emphasised the need to assess alternatives such as economic sanctions and other tougher measures by the international community. China made no immediate comment.

The DPRK, which too had spoken a few days ago about the option of a peaceful resolution of this crisis, today sought to explain the rationale of the evolving "nuclear deterrent force''. The North Korean agency said: "The nuclear deterrent force of the DPRK is not meant to blackmail anybody but (only) to reduce the conventional weapons''.

Moreover, the DPRK sought to underline that a parallel objective was to "transfer manpower and funds to economic construction and people's life''. This particular aspect, which does not address the financial costs of nuclear weaponisation itself, is meant to answer the international criticism of Pyongyang's poor economic management.

As for the strategic justification of the "nuclear deterrent plan'', Pyongyang blamed the U.S. for sustaining an "anti-DPRK policy'' that indeed necessitated a `physical' response of this kind. Without addressing the U.S.' plans to carry out research to develop miniaturised nuclear weapons to meet the challenges from the likes of North Korea, the Kim Jong-il regime in Pyongyang said the American concerns over its nuclear profile would be settled peacefully "if the U.S. abandons its anti-DPRK policy and settles our concerns''.

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