N. Korea raps Japan over stalled nuclear talks

SEOUL, April 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea blasted Japan on Tuesday for passing the blame over stalled nuclear disarmament talks, insisting Tokyo is responsible for the deadlock by not fulfilling its obligations.

The criticism came in response to Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura,
who a day earlier denounced Pyongyang's reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods
as "not constructive" and urged the country to return to the six-party talks.
"Lurking behind his outbursts is a sinister intention to mislead the public
opinion in a bid to evade their blame for bringing the talks to collapse, shift
the responsibility onto the DPRK (North Korea)," North Korea's Cabinet newspaper
Minju Joson said in a commentary.
The nuclear talks grouping the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and
Russia have been in limbo since late last year due to disputes over how to verify
Pyongyang's past nuclear activity. Tension spiked markedly after North Korea's
rocket launch on April 5, which led to a series of punitive reactions from the
international community.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a presidential statement condemning the launch,
prompting Pyongyang to withdraw from the six-party talks in protest. Last week,
the Security Council's sanctions committee froze foreign assets of three North
Korean firms suspected of aiding the country's nuclear and missile programs. In
response Pyongyang swiftly announced it has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
rods to extract plutonium, used to make nuclear bombs.
Kawamura said in a press conference that Japan will fulfill U.N. sanctions and
closely work with the U.S. to push the nuclear talks forward.
North Korea accused the Japanese government of politicizing its rocket launch to
fend off internal criticism. Japan also failed to provide its share of energy aid
promised to Pyongyang under a six-party deal and linked its aid to an abduction
issue "irrelevant" to the nuclear negotiations, the newspaper said.
"Whenever the talks opened, Japan raised issues completely irrelevant to the
talks, deliberately throwing obstacles in their way and making desperate efforts
to bring the talks to collapse," it said.
Japan has said it will provide its share of the 1 million tons of energy aid only
after North Korea's past abductions of its citizens is accounted for.
North Korea's party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, accused Japan of attempting to
go nuclear and said the move compels Pyongyang to "further bolster the nuclear
deterrent." The paper cited recent controversial remarks by Japanese lawmaker and
former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who said his nation should consider
possessing nuclear weapons as a deterrent to a possible attack from North Korea,
a suggestion later dismissed by Kawamura.
In a separate commentary, the Rodong Sinmun lashed out at South Korea's foreign
minister over his denunciations of Pyongyang's rocket launch and support for
Seoul's participation in a U.S.-led security campaign, the Proliferation Security
Initiative.
"His barbed words can never be overlooked as they are ... prompted by his extreme
idolization of outsiders, deep-seated rejection and hostility toward fellow
countrymen," the paper said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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