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South China Morning Post Friday, November 30, 2001 Arms inspection calls rejected REUTERS in Seoul The Government yesterday angrily rejected recent US calls for inspections of its suspected weapons of mass destruction and threatened to take unspecified "necessary countermeasures". The North Korean Foreign Ministry also dismissed as "quite nonsensical" US statements urging the communist state to do more to co-operate against terrorism. "The US is unreasonably demanding the DPRK receive an inspection just as a thief turns on the master with a club," the Ministry said. DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name - the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Under this situation the DPRK cannot sit idle but is left with no option but to take necessary countermeasures," it said, without elaborating. It said US calls for arms inspections and criticism of North Korean human rights abuses and religious restrictions "goes to prove that some forces in the United States do not want the dialogue for the solution of the problems". On Monday, US President George W. Bush hinted that Iraq could be next in line in his war on terrorism and urged North Korea to allow inspectors to determine whether it has been producing weapons of mass destruction. He said North Korea should allow inspections if it wanted better relations with the US. The US State Department said North Korea's new nuclear power plants would need inspection "as these facilities are built". Under the Agreed Framework deal with North Korea in 1994, Western countries agreed to build light-water reactors in North Korea to replace graphite-moderated reactors, which are more useful in making weapons-grade material. "We've pointed out that North Korea's missile proliferation programmes are still a concern," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Mr Bush's remarks followed public references to North Korea's biological weapons arsenal by US Under-Secretary of State John Bolton last week. He said the North was a leading violator of the international treaty banning biological weapons. North Korea is believed to have 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons and a stockpile of germ warfare agents, including anthrax and smallpox. ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
