PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

25 September 1999

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

At a press conference at United Nations Headquarters today, Paek Nam Sun, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, briefed correspondents on the situation in the Korean peninsula and on his country's relations with the United States.

The situation on the peninsula, said Foreign Minister Paek, stood at the centre of questions of international peace and security. His own country, now moving towards recovery after some five years of serious economic difficulties, had emerged from its ordeal not close to "early collapse", as some had predicted, but stronger than ever.

That recovery was thanks to the army-first revolutionary leadership of its great leader, General Kim Jong Il, and the people's single-minded support for its leader. His army-first policy, designed to unite the people around the pillar of the army, with the aim of defending the country and speeding up economic reconstruction, was the only sure guarantee of the survival and triumph of his country's unique socialist system.

Turning to the question of national reunification and of North-South relations on the Korean peninsula, he said the fundamental reasons for continuing instability and tension there were national division and the deep involvement of foreign forces. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was making consistent efforts to achieve national reunification peacefully. Reunification was a long-cherished desire of its people, and a prerequisite for durable peace and security on the peninsula.

The country, said Mr. Paek, should be reunified on the basis of three principles, namely, independence, peaceful reunification and national unity. Those were principles on which the North and South of Korea had solemnly and publicly agreed in the 1970s. The country could be reunified through establishment of a confederal State in which the systems of North and South would coexist. There were now differing systems in the North and South. They had been in place for more than half a century; any attempt by one side to change the other without taking that reality into account would only provoke conflict.

Mr. Paek told correspondents that the so-called "sunshine policy" and "engagement policy" advocated by the South were a dangerous stratagem for changing the system of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- and reunifying Korea by absorbing the North into the South's "free and democratic system". The present authorities of the South, he added, now publicly compared their policies to the "peaceful transfer strategy" of the United States, which had brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. To end confrontation between the North and the South, the South should abolish, among other things, the "National Security Law" that defined their fellow countrymen as enemies. As long as that evil, anti-national and anti-reunification law remained in place, all talk of "reconciliation" and

Paek Press Conference - 2 - 25 September 1999

"cooperation" between North and South remained mere lip service. Moreover, the law obviated the possibility of contacts and exchanges between the two.

His country wanted a dialogue aimed at reunification, not at national division. The authorities of the South should not depend on foreign forces against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but adopt an attitude of national independence and patriotism. Only then could a breakthrough for national reunification be achieved.

Relations between his country and the United States were, in a word, belligerent, the Foreign Minister said. In his view, the United States saw the destruction of the socialist system of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as its final objective. The United States currently suspected an empty tunnel of being an "underground nuclear facility", and had described a satellite launch by his country as a ballistic missile. Such assumptions stemmed directly from United States perceptions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as an enemy.

Yet the people of his country loved peace more than other peoples did. For half of this century they had lived under Japanese colonial rule and for the other half in a state of belligerence with the United States. The present confrontation on the Korean peninsula was one between those who were masters of their country and determined to defend it against foreign forces. It was no easy matter for his country, territorially small and still lacking almost everything, to defend its sovereignty in the face of the collective hostile power politics of the United States and its subordinate forces. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea therefore had no choice but to strengthen its national defence capabilities, even by tightening its belt.

However, if the United States repudiated its cold war antagonism towards his country, even at this late date, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would also move to improve relations with the United States on the principle of equality and reciprocal benefit. It had already demonstrated its good faith through its sincere implementation of the United States-Democratic People's Republic of Korea Agreed Framework of over the past five years. It was now the United States' turn to prove its good faith with deeds. At the present juncture, that meant proper implementation of its obligations under the terms of the Agreed Framework.

Last week, he went on, the United States had announced the easing of some economic sanctions against his country. He welcomed those administrative measures, aimed at implementing the terms of the Agreed Framework -- although those measures were belated, and not comprehensive. He looked forward to seeing them put into practice. If the United States stopped pursuing its hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, his country too would respond in good faith. For the moment, in response to United States’ requests, it would, as announced, enter high-level talks on pending bilateral issues, and suspend missile launches while those talks were under way.

A correspondent asked the Foreign Minister whether his country might resume missile launches following its high-level talks with the United

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States. Mr. Paek said the answer to that question was a matter of the sovereign rights of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. If necessary, he said, and depending on the results of the talks, his country was fully prepared to resume launching.

Asked whether the Democratic People's Republic of Korea intended to resume talks with Japan with a view to state-to-state relations, the Foreign Minister said his country's position had been clearly spelled out in its statement of this past August. As for Japan, that country was geographically near but in actuality far distant from his own. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea aspired to normal relations with Japan, but that would depend on the Japanese Government's willingness to liquidate its past crimes by expressing repentance and offering compensation. Normal relations with Japan, he said, were entirely dependent on such willingness.

A correspondent asked if the nuclear programme of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was now "frozen". She also asked -- after noting that the Foreign Minister blamed the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan for the tension on the Korean peninsula -- whether he thought that provocative acts and words by his own country might not have contributed to that tension.

Mr. Paek replied that, in conformity with the Agreed Framework of 1994, his country's nuclear programme was indeed thoroughly frozen. As for his questioner's reference to the hostile environment in the Korean peninsula, he pointed to actions in the region by the South, by Japan and by the United States. His own country's response, he said, had been the consistent pursuit of solutions to the problem of reunification and of peace and security in the peninsula. He added that the United States had deployed nuclear missiles and weapons all around the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, without any response in kind from his country. In August 1998, he said, his country had launched into orbit a rocket developed by its own efforts, whereupon Japan had characterized that move as a missile launch. Noting that Japan had launched dozens of satellites into orbit, he asked whether those launches should not be characterized as missile tests, and therefore as threats to Japan's neighbours.

Another correspondent asked Mr. Paek what specific actions by the United States - over and above the lifting of sanctions - would be seen as practical tokens of United States "good faith".

What his country wanted, said the Foreign Minister, was United States respect for the sovereign rights of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It asked for a United States pullback from its hostile policies. It asked the United States for full implementation of its obligations under the Framework Agreement. As soon as the United States made clear its intention to move on those issues, then the good faith of both sides could be translated into action. He added that a major step towards peace would be United States withdrawal of its troops from the peninsula.

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