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North Korea demanded recognition as a nuclear state in a meeting with U.S. officials in New York, Japan¡¯s Asahi Shimbun newspaper claimed Wednesday.
But the paper said North Korean officials in Monday¡¯s meeting did not repeat calls for six-party talks on the country¡¯s nuclear program to be transformed into mutual disarmament talks.
North Korea declared itself a nuclear power on Feb. 10, but this is the first time Pyongyang has directly told Washington to treat it accordingly.
The paper said the U.S. believed North Korea made the demand because it calculates that by making its nuclear power status an established fact it can earn more concessions during negotiations. But Washington declined to respond to the demands, the Asahi said.
The paper quoted a source it said was ¡°familiar with the North Korea-U.S. relationship,¡± who in turn quoted North Korean UN ambassador Pak Kil-yon as telling U.S. State Department special envoy Joseph DeTrani, "You must treat us as a nuclear state." The nameless source did not say what specific treatment North Korea felt that entailed.
However, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a briefing Wednesday that North Korea mentioned nothing about preconditions for its return to talks.
The Japanese paper said U.S. officials believed the North has given up on calls to transform the six-party talks into mutual disarmament talks.
There are some within the U.S. government who think Pyongyang is angling for similar treatment to Pakistan, which tested a nuclear weapon and exported nuclear technology but has been a close ally of the U.S. in its ¡°war on terror¡±.
(Jung Kwon-hyeon, khjung@chosun.com )
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