Toyko’s ultimatum to Pyongyang: denuclearize or no aid
Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Japan has no intention of continuing to send humanitarian aid or energy to North Korea unless the latter takes decisive steps towards dismantling its nuclear arsenal.
Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said yesterday: "First the government of Pyongyang must aim at denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the most important thing is what concrete steps can take. Everything will start from that point."
The politician made the intentions of his government clear after rumours reported in the national media that North Korea had asked the United States for 500,000 tons of oil per year as a tradeoff for closing its atomic plants.
A diplomatic source that remained anonymous said: “North Korea's willingness to shut down the reactors is based on the premise that they will be dismantled. In the six-party nuclear talks [which are to resume in Beijing on 8 February] Pyongyang said it will take such a decision only when the right conditions are created.”
In any case, one Korean daily said the Stalinist regime led by Kim Jong-il “has no intention of renouncing to atomic energy. It just wants to change the reactors it has into a type that cannot be used for military purposes but it wants energy from other nations at the same time.”
The supply of oil was one of the conditions approved by the international community in 1994 when it asked North Korea to give up nuclear testing.
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