Tokyo, Jan 18: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has said Washington may issue a non-aggression policy statement with North Korea if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear arms programme, reports said today. In an interview with Japanese journalists in Washington yesterday, Armitage denied that the US Congress would pass any treaty of non-aggression.
But he said the United States may issue a statement promising to secure the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, and reiterated Washington wants to resolve the nuclear standoff peacefully through diplomacy, not war. "We have recently spoken out that we have no hostile intentions," Armitage was quoted by Kyodo news as telling Japanese journalists.

"We are not going to invade North Korea. We believe that there is a way to document this, whether an exchange of letters or official statement, something like that," he said.

"If we respect their sovereignty, and their economic activity, then, there is a basis to move forward," he said. Armitage, however, stressed the need for a comprehensive security deal with North Korea, covering its uranium-enrichment and plutonium-extracting capabilities as well as chemical and conventional weapons.

"We found out now that North Korea has highly enriched uranium facility which they are pursuing," Armitage said. "Any new arrangement would have to capture also the highly enriched uranium facility as well. "We desire also having discussions with North Koreans about conventional military threats, entire WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) arsenal to include chemical weapons," he said. Bureau Report