N Korea should abstain from steps increasing reg tension-Japan FM.

4/9 Tass 85

TOKYO, September 4 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea should abstain from steps
that may increase tension in the region and it should strictly comply with
resolutions of the UN Security Council aimed at denuclearisation of the
Korean Peninsula, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said on
Friday. He commented on Pyongyang's statements that the republic has
entered the final stage of uranium enrichment and is making new nuclear
warheads.
According to the Kyodo news agency, Nakasone on Friday called on North
Korea to "refrain from behaviour that raises tension" in the region in
response to the report by the official Korean Central News Agency that the
North's uranium enrichment experiment has progressed to the final phase.
"We want North Korea to implement concerned UN Security Council
resolutions and to constructively respond" toward realising agreements
reached at six-party talks aimed at denuclearising the North, Nakasone
told a press conference.
The remarks were made after North Korea said in a letter sent Thursday
to the UN Security Council that its uranium enrichment experiment has
progressed to the final phase and plutonium extracted from a resumed
nuclear facility is being turned into weapons, according to the KCNA.
According to Kyodo, the letter also said it "totally rejects the UNSC
'Resolution 1874,' which was unfairly orchestrated in June 13 in wanton
violation of the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity and that the DPRK will
never be bound by this resolution." DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's
official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Nakasone also said that Japan will continue to cooperate closely with
the United States, South Korea and China in dealing with North Korea,
noting the importance of "peacefully" solving outstanding issues through
the six-party talks and dialogue between related countries. The talks,
involving North and South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and
Russia have been stalled since December over ways to verify Pyongyang's
nuclear activities.
North Korea said it will quit the talks in protest over a UN Security
Council statement condemning its rocket launch in April, which was widely
seen as a disguised missile test, Kyodo reported. It also conducted its
second nuclear test in May, which led the UN Security Council to adopt
Resolution 1874 aimed at punishing the country.
According to the Associated Press, North Korea said Friday that it is
in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that could give it a
second way to make nuclear bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based
programme.
North Korean state media said officials had informed the UN Security
Council it is forging ahead with its nuclear programmes in spite of
international calls to abandon them. "Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is
at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized.
Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter
into completion phase," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The US and North Korea's neighbours had been negotiating for years
with the North to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear programme, which
experts say has yielded enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a
dozen atomic bombs, AP reported. North Korea walked away from those talks
earlier this year.
-0-ezh/ast