|
Usually reliable insiders on Thursday claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told the nation's top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan the North can relax after developing nuclear weapons and to conduct negotiations with the U.S. in a confident manner. The sources in Seoul and Beijing said Kim would have said something along the lines of, ¡°We don't have to worry about our security any more. There won't be a war. You go and see whether the U.S. is really ready to be our friend,¡± before sending him off to six-party talks about the nation¡¯s nuclear program on Dec 18-22.
They said Kim Kye-gwan¡¯s unprecedented English-language Q&A session after the six-party talks ended also happened at the direct orders of Kim Jong-il. The North Korean vice foreign minister took the opportunity to stress that North Korea is now a nuclear power and demanded mutual nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S. He again complained of Washington's ¡°hostile¡± policy toward his country and its sanctions on the North's accounts in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia. At the Dec. 22 press conference, he took a grand total of four questions from reporters.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
