WORLD / Asia-Pacific
N.Korea wants Japan to stay away from six-party talks
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-11-04 13:59
Pyongyang on Saturday said Japan should not attend six-party nuclear
disarmament talks after Japanese officials reportedly said Tokyo would
not recognise North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
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"It is the view of the DPRK (North Korea) that since the US attends the
six-party talks, there is no need for Japan to participate in them as a
local delegate," a spokesman of its foreign ministry said.
"Because it is no more than a state of the US and it is enough for Tokyo
just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington," he was
quoted as saying by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea said it had decided to end a year-long boycott and return to
the six-party talks on the premise that the issue of lifting US financial
sanctions against it would be discussed and settled at the six-party
talks.
Japanese leaders behaved "impudently" after Pyongyang's announcement,
asserting that "Japan cannot accept North Korea's return to the six-party
talks as a nuclear-armed state," the spokesman said.
"The Japanese authorities have thus clearly proved themselves that they
are political imbeciles incapable of judging the trend of the situation
and their deplorable position."
"The DPRK (North Korea) has never asked Japan to participate in the
six-party talks. In fact, it was displeased with Japan's participation in
the six-party talks, but has properly treated it, taking the relations
with other participating countries into consideration," the spokesman
said.
The new administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must have a lot of
work to do, he said.
"It had better, therefore, mind its own business instead of poking its
nose into the work of the talks to its inconvenience.
"It would be much better for Japan to refrain from participating in the
six-party talks and less attendants would be not bad for making the talks
fruitful," he added.
The six-party talks, which began in 2003, are aimed at convincing North
Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for economic
incentives and security guarantees
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