No political prerequisites for North Korea to give up its nuclear potential - expert

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. There are no political prerequisites for North Korea to give up its nuclear potential, director of the Center for Russian Strategy in Asia at the Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Sciences Georgy Toloraya said on Thursday. "I don’t think that North Korea will give up its nuclear potential, there are no political prerequisites for that," Toloraya told the roundtable "North Korean hydrogen track: testing patience of international community." "The more isolated the country becomes, the more they will develop their nuclear weapons," he added. Toloraya added that the it is advantageous for the United States "to maintain tension near the borders of Russia and China in the Far East." "Americans are not interested in resolving the problem of the North Korean nuclear program. However, if the aim is to strengthen security on the Korean Peninsula, then negotiations should be held with North Korea. In this case, it is possible that North Korean nuclear program will be suspended, and possibilities will appear to resolve the situation politically. Russia is interested in this," the expert explained. The current South Korean administration "does not plan to embark on a peaceful path in the negotiations process with North Korea," Toloraya continued adding that resuming propagandistic broadcasts on the border with the North serves as good evidence of that. "They have probably not found any other response to that. This is a clear provocation against their neighbor," he noted. However, "South Korea may play an important role and encourage Americans to start dialogue," the expert said. "By doing that, South Koreans may play a role of a catalyst of the political process. Another matter is whether South Korea will use this opportunity. In any case, that would be desirable," he concluded. North Korea announced on January 6 that it had successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test. The country’s government said in a statement circulated by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the test had had "no adverse impacts on the environmental situation." Now, according to the statement, North Korea "possesses the strongest deterrent forces." North Korea previously conducted three nuclear tests: in 2006, in 2009 and in 2013. Following these tests, the United Nations Security Council imposed various sanctions on Pyongyang. In the past two years, North Korea refrained from nuclear tests limiting itself to ballistic missile launches as a response to the US-South Korea large-scale military drills. Read more