Seoul: North Korea said on Wednesday it would not
produce nuclear weapons to excess or engage in an arms race
and was ready to join an international non-proliferation
campaign as a nuclear armed state.
"It will manufacture nukes as much as it deems necessary
but will neither participate in nuclear arms race nor produce
them more than it feels necessary," the North Korean foreign
ministry said in a memorandum published by state media.
The North will join international nuclear disarmament
efforts "with an equal stand with other nuclear weapons
states," it said.
The memorandum comes nearly two weeks after the North
vowed to strengthen its own atomic arsenal, complaining that a
new US policy was eroding the hard-won atmosphere for the
resumption of stalled six-nation disarmament talks.
The talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia
and the United States, were last held in December 2008. The
North announced in April 2009 it was quitting the forum and
staged its second nuclear test a month later.
As conditions for returning, it wants a US commitment to
hold talks about a formal peace treaty and the lifting of UN
sanctions.
The North says it developed its atomic arsenal to deter a
US nuclear threat and cannot give it up until the threat is
lifted.
PTI
