N. Korea pulls out of six-party talks

Pyongyang yesterday vowed to boycott six-nation talks and restart its nuclear program in response to the U.N. Security Council statement that condemned its rocket launch.

"We will never take part in the six-party negotiations again or be bound to any agreements (made under previous denuclearization talks)," the North`s foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday.

"We will bolster our self-defensive nuclear deterrent in every way. We will actively consider building our own light-water nuclear reactor, will revive nuclear facilities and reprocess used nuclear fuel rods."

The North`s foreign ministry had warned late last month that the six-party talks would collapse if the U.N. Security Council even discussed its "satellite launch." It had also suggested restoring the nuclear facility in Yongbyon.

North Korea had begun disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant more than a year ago as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

In its presidential statement adopted on Monday, the U.N. Security Council condemned the North Korean launch as a breach of a 2006 resolution prohibiting its ballistic missile activity, demanded the country not conduct any further launch and return to the six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program.

Contrary to what some analysts here had believed, Pyongyang wasn`t bluffing when it threatened to pull out from the six-nation talks should the U.N. Security Council take any action against its "satellite launch."

Experts such as Yoon Deok-min, professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, and Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, hadn`t expected the North would actually withdraw from the six-party talks and plunge into deeper isolation.

"It won`t be easy for the North to put its verbal threats into action because the U.N. Security Council statement showed that neither China nor Russia are supportive of its missile launch," Yoo said prior to Pyongyang`s statement yesterday.

"Its missile launch, after all, was designed to gain more leverage in negotiations with the international community."

After the North vowed to quit the six-party talks, Yoo said they have surprisingly chosen to limit their communication with the outside world to bilateral talks with China and the United States.

"Seoul should not act on its own regarding the North`s denuclearization," Yoo said.

Regarding South Korea`s plan for full membership of a U.S.-led anti-proliferation program, Yoon of the IFANS said the measure is something the South should have done much earlier.

"Seoul has an international responsibility to take part in the Proliferation Security Initiative," Yoon said. "Inter-Korean relations are already at their worst, so the South has no reason to fear joining the PSI."

Pyongyang said late last month that if Seoul joins the PSI because of its rocket launch, it would regard the move as a "declaration of war."

The North is unlikely to take further offensive actions such as nullifying the inter-Korean agreement on maritime transportation, which took effect in 2005 because it would mean great economic loss for the communist state, according to Yoon.

By Kim So-hyun



(sophie@heraldm.com)