Henry Kissinger

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Thursday warned of "global calamity" if nuclear weapons proliferate due to North Korea's nuclear program.

He was giving a lecture at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think tank in Seoul. "We have very little fear from North Korea's nuclear capability. The kind of weapons that North Korea can produce we can surely handle with whatever defensive system we have," Kissinger said. "But the real danger is, if North Korea, a state which has no significant resources, by starving its population can create nuclear capability, the temptation for other countries to follow that road would be overwhelming."

He expressed support for a combined strategy of sanctions and dialogue pursued by the current U.S. administration. North Korea's nuclear weapons program is not just a problem for the U.S., but a problem for all countries that are affected by it, he said.

Kissinger said if North Korea really wants to solve the problem through negotiations, it must demonstrate that by returning to the six-party talks without preconditions. "My general view is that unless all parties are equally interested in the outcome, you can't make them interested by paying them a price for entering the negotiations," he said.