North Korea denies preparing nuclear test: Czech envoy

Agence France-Presse | May 25, 2005

[HAL9000]

SEOUL - North Korean officials denied reports that the communist regime was preparing to conduct a nuclear test, a Czech delegation told Yonhap news agency Tuesday following a visit to Pyongyang this week.

But North Korea was still reluctant to return to six-way talks aimed at winding down its nuclear program despite recent bilateral contact with the United States in New York.

“North Korean officials said the reports of a nuclear test is nonsense,” Lubomir Zaoralek, chairman of the lower house of the Czech Parliament, said in an interview with Yonhap.

Zaoralek and his team stopped over in South Korea following a four-day visit to North Korea, Yonhap said.

The six-member Czech delegation met with North Korean leaders, including Pyongyang’s number two Kim Yong-Nam and Choe Tae-Bok, chairman of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly, it said.

The North Korean officials dismissed speculation that Pyongyang was preparing a nuclear test as Washington’s ploy to further isolate the communist state, Zaoralek said.

“But Choe Tae-Bok told me that North Korea does not want the situation to worsen,” he said, adding Pyongyang reaffirmed a return to six-way nuclear talks only if Washington drops its “hostile” policy.

He said talks with the North Koreans reassured him that North Korea was willing to resolve the crisis peacefully.

North Korea has boycotted the six-way talks since the third round in June last year. Aside from the United States and North Korea, the dialogue includes China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

After declaring itself nuclear-armed in February, the North said it had unloaded 8,000 spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor, a step that would allow it to reprocess weapons-grade plutonium for more nuclear bombs.

Recent US media reports, quoting officials in Washington, said there were signs the North is preparing for a nuclear test.

North Korea has officiallly neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

[HAL9000]

North Korea denies rumors of nuke test, wants more economic exchanges

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea denied as "groundless propaganda" recent U.S. allegations that it was preparing for a nuclear test, the leader of a Czech delegation that visited Pyongyang said here Wednesday.

The six-member delegation from the Czech Parliament met high-level North Korean officials, including No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam, in Pyongyang during its four-day visit that started Saturday.

"They didn't want to bring up this issue, because they said it (the allegations) was groundless propaganda," Lubomir Zaoralek, leader of the delegation and the parliamentary speaker, said in a press conference, referring to officials of the North's Supreme People's Assembly.

The international community recently became alarmed at rumors out of the United States that North Korea might be preparing to conduct its first nuclear weapons test.

The delegation held separate meetings with Kim, Choe Tae-bok, chairman of the North's Supreme People's Assembly and Premier Pak Pong-ju.

Kim, the No. 2 leader, was the most vocal in explaining the North Korean position on nuclear and economic issues, while Pak seemed "restricted" and provided just an official statement on the North Korean economy, Zaoralek said.

North Korea still demanded that Washington "drop its hostile policy," Zaoralek said, but it also showed willingness to return to the stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.

"They said they couldn't sit at the table with someone who tries to suffocate them," he said, "(but) I had a good feeling that they want to open the dialogue."

The North Koreans showed interest in developing economic exchanges with the Czech Republic, including opportunities for North Korean students and officials to learn from the Czech system, which was formerly socialist, he said.

In Seoul, Zaoralek met his South Korean counterpart Kim One-ki and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon for a briefing on his North Korea trip.

"I am deeply grateful that Mr. Speaker visited North Korea...and played an important role," Ban said at the start of his meeting with Zaoralek. "If you let me know views of the North Korean leadership on the nuclear issue, I will report it to the president and the prime minister." North Korea attended three rounds of talks with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia until last June to try to resolve the nuclear dispute, but little progress was made. The North has since boycotted the nuclear forum, accusing Washington of being hostile toward it.

Tension in the nuclear standoff rose rapidly since February when the North declared itself a nuclear power and then suspended operations at its main nuclear reactor in a move believed to be aimed at harvesting plutonium for nuclear bombs.