North Korea should enjoy the right to the peaceful use of nuclear power, said Kim Kye-gwan, the country's chief negotiator to the ongoing six-party Korean nuclear talks, in Beijing yesterday.  

Kim, also vice foreign minister, made the remarks outside the North Korean Embassy in China following a heads-of-delegation meeting of the talks last night.

Kim expressed dissatisfaction with the US' opposition to the North's peaceful use of nuclear power.

"All countries in the world enjoy the right to make a peaceful use of nuclear power," Kim said. "North Korea is neither a defeated nation in a war nor a nation having committed any crimes, so why should we not be allowed to use the nuclear power peacefully?"

He said now all participating nations in the six-party talks except the US understand the North's position. He also expressed his belief that the US would also be persuaded in the end to support North Korea to make a peaceful use of nuclear power.

According to Kim, as differences remained in the political stances of North Korea and the US, the current round of talks is now in sort of stalemate in the drafting process of a common document.

He said so far various parties to the talks have failed to reach a consensus on specific measures relating to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, adding that North Korea and the US are still unable to establish mutual trust on the normalization of bilateral ties.

"This round of talks aims at realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula," he said. "We will make every effort to help the talks achieve progress, and the talks will continue."

The current round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, involving China, the US, Russia, Japan, South and North Korea, has entered its 11th day today.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2005)