hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, Staff Writer

Through a statement by a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman to the pro-Northern Zainichi Korean Choson Sinbo newspaper in Japan, North Korea has again demanded that the United States make good on a promise to provide food aid. It responded head-on to US demands that food aid be preceded by measures to abolish the North's nuclear program by claiming that it would not temporarily stop uranium production unless the promised food aid was provided.
In a January 14 article titled “The US’s attitude is the key to resuming dialogue diplomacy,” the Choson Sinbo stated, “[North] Korea is pushing ahead with the construction of an experimental light water reactor, in accordance with its national economic development strategy. If a final agreement on ‘trust-building measures’ cannot be reached, the production of low-density uranium to guarantee a supply of fuel to the light water reactor will not be halted for even a single day.” The “trust-building measure” to which the North refers is the 330,000t of food aid that the US has still not been delivered of the 500,000t it promised in 2008.
The Choson Sinbo went on to warn that if the Obama administration wasted time by using North Korea’s period of national mourning as a pretext to put off the resumption of talks, the situation could become worse. As examples of factors that were preventing dialogue, the newspaper cited the change from “food aid” to “nutritional aid” and the change in items to be provided from “grain” to “infant foods such as powdered milk.” This can be regarded as the North emphasizing its steadfast stance in talks with the US, despite difficulties following the death of National Defence Commission chairman Kim Jong-il.
In a January 11 statement, a spokesman for the North’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed the contents of a meeting with the US, saying, “The US initially claimed that food aid was a humanitarian issue unrelated to politics. In North Korea-US talks that began in July 2011, it made food aid a political issue by saying it would take measures such as the temporary lifting of sanctions and the providing of food aid if the North took measures such as the temporary cessation of uranium enrichment.”

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