N. Korea says U.S. should first normalize relations to solve nuke dispute

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SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday that the United States should
first normalize relations with Pyongyang as a precondition for its
denuclearization in its first message to the new U.S. administration.

The nuclear dispute was "caused by the U.S. hostile policy toward (North) Korea
and its subsequent nuclear threat and it's not the nuclear dispute that caused
the hostile relations," North Korea's foreign ministry spokesman said in a
statement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.
The clear-cut statement came ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama next week, who is expected to review U.S. policy on North Korea
after eight years of largely frayed relations with Pyongyang. Speculation has
been growing that Obama may establish a diplomatic office in the North as a step
toward normalizing relations.
"There will be no such case in 100 years' time that we will hand over our nuclear
weapons first without the fundamental settlement of the U.S. hostile policy
toward (North) Korea and its nuclear threat," the spokesman said.
Pyongyang has refrained from issuing its usual anti-U.S. tirade in recent weeks,
in an apparent sign that it wants to start afresh with the new U.S.
administration.
Under an aid-for-denuclearization deal signed with South Korea, the U.S., China,
Russia and Japan in 2007, North Korea has nearly completed disablement of the
plutonium-producing reactor.
But the six-way talks currently remain deadlocked over ways to verify the North's
declaration of its nuclear program.
North Korea called for an "action-for-action principle," saying inspectors should
also visit nuclear facilities in the South in the final stage of its
denuclearization.
South Korea's deputy chief nuclear envoy will visit North Korea later this week
to discuss the possible purchase of unused fuel rods stored at the North's main
nuclear plant that is being disabled under the multilateral deal.
Hwang Joon-kook, director general of the ministry's North Korean nuclear affairs
bureau, will leave Seoul for an open-ended trip to Pyongyang, the foreign
ministry said earlier in the day.
If the trip is made, Hwang will be the highest-level South Korean government
official to visit Pyongyang since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took
office in Seoul in February last year, pledging to get tough on the communist
neighbor.
Inter-Korean relations have since been frozen, with North Korea cutting off
virtually all official contact with Seoul. Their border is tightly sealed, and
North Korea bars any cross-border travel by South Korean officials.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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