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North Korean Daily Condemns US "Double Standards" on Nuclear Issue

Posted on: Saturday, 22 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of Minju Joson commentary entitled: "Double-standard policy can never be tolerated"; carried by North Korean news agency KCNA website

Pyongyang, 22 October: Minju Joson, in its 22 October issue, carried the following signed commentary under the title "Double- standard policy can never be tolerated".

At present, the United States is laying bare its double standard towards the nuclear issue even more blatantly.

In connection with the nuclear issue, the United States adopts an uncompromising hardline stand towards some countries while positively defending and encouraging some other countries. Up until now, the United States has been tacitly supporting Israel's nuclear development and turning a blind eye to its possession of nuclear weapons while pursuing a policy of isolating and crushing the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] under the pretext of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue. Recently, it has been making no scruple of even transferring nuclear technology to the countries that are outside of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). What is clear is that the standard the United States applies to the nuclear issue is not based on any officially recognized international convention or definition, but is solely based on its own interests. The United States "recognizes" the nuclear possession of other countries as it pleases and even transfers nuclear technology without any regard for the NPT if this is to its interests. The United States' stand towards the nuclear issue is ultimately determined by whether or not the relations of alliance exist.

The United States' such a policy of applying double standards towards the nuclear issue can never be tolerated, as it is an extremely dangerous policy that will bring nothing but the result of paralysing the global nuclear non-proliferation system and thus destroying international stability and exposing humankind to the threat of nuclear calamity.

It is thanks to the NPT and other such international conventions that a unitary international system governing the development, production and use of nuclear weapons is established and that the control of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, is being strengthened. These safeguard systems, however, are being destroyed due to the United States' policy of applying double standards. The NPT, which comprises the basic core of the global nuclear non-proliferation system, is facing a crisis as a result of the United States' double-standard policy of making brigandish nuclear threat and blackmail against the countries that it finds offensive but actively defending the NPT non-compliance of its "allies" and disregarding the implementation of its obligations. It is as clear as day that if such a phenomenon continues, the NPT will be reduced to nothing more than an empty shell with no binding force in the near future and that the world will be once again plunged into a nuclear holocaust. Reality makes it necessary to correctly perceive the threatening and unfair nature of the United States' double-standard policy towards the nuclear issue and heighten vigilance against it.

The DPRK's stand towards the United States' policy of applying double standards to the nuclear issue is consistently firm.

The DPRK strongly opposes and rejects the United States' double- standard policy towards the nuclear issue, regarding it as a flagrant infringement upon its sovereignty and dignity.

The United States' policy of applying double standards to the nuclear issue poses the greatest obstacle interfering with the settlement of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue. The nuclear threat against the DPRK will never be eliminated as long as the United States' double-standard policy towards the nuclear issue continues as it is, since it is the root cause of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue.

If the United States truly wishes to settle the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue and is not pursuing a double-standard policy towards the nuclear issue, there is no reason why it should refuse to respond to the DPRK's demand at once. The DPRK is not making any special demand of the United States. Its demand is that the United States accord the same treatment and adopt the same measures to the DPRK as it does to the other countries that actually possess nuclear weapons outside of the NPT. This will also prove in practice the United States' commitment to respect the sovereignty of the DPRK as a UN member state.

Should the United States ignore our demand and continue to cling to its double-standard policy towards the nuclear issue, it will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences this will bring.

The United States is well-advised to squarely face the reality and conduct itself with due consideration.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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