The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would give up all its nuclear weapon programs once the United States abandoned its hostile policies toward the DPRK with actions, Kim Kye-gwan, DPRK deputy foreign minister and head of the DPRK delegation, said at the opening ceremony of the third round of six-party talks in Beijing Wednesday afternoon.

Kim said it was the task of all parties to break the deadlock between the DPRK and the United States on the nuclear issue during the third round of the six-party talks.

 

He said the "freeze for compensation" program proposed by the DPRK delegation could break the deadlock between the United States and the DPRK as a result of distrust and differences.

 

As the DPRK's delegation clarified before, the goal of the DPRK was to build a nuclear weapon-free Korean Peninsula, said Kim.

 

The DPRK's nuclear programs were products of US hostility toward the DPRK, created for protecting itself and countering US nuclear threats, Kim said, stressing that the DPRK did not want to permanently possess nuclear weapons nor would it attack the United States with nuclear weapons.

 

Kim said the DPRK would make preparations to give up all its nuclear programs once the United States abandoned the hostile policies toward the DPRK with actions.

 

He added that the DPRK would like to hear something new from the US delegation and it would put forward concrete plans on freezing nuclear programs if the US party withdrew the CVID demand (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement) and accepted the "freeze for compensation" program during the four-day talks.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2004)