FRANCE: North Korea's top envoy calls for the resumption of six-party talks without preconditions

Record ID: 326093

  • Title: FRANCE: North Korea's top envoy calls for the resumption of six-party talks without preconditions
  • Date: 19th November 2011
  • Summary: TOULOUSE, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 18, 2011) (REUTERS) NORTH KOREAN DELEGATION GIVING A SPEECH AT TOULOUSE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LISTENING TO THE SPEECH RI YONG HO, DEPUTY AMBASSADOR OF NORTH KOREA TO UNESCO SITTING NEXT TO YUN YONG II, AMBASSADOR OF NORTH KOREA TO UNESCO (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY AMBASSADOR OF NORTH KOREA TO UNESCO, RI YONG HO SAYING: "The total nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is one chain of the world nuclearisation" VARIOUS OF STUDENTS LISTENING TO THE SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY AMBASSADOR OF NORTH KOREA TO UNESCO, RI YONG HO SAYING: "The position of our government on this issue is that we must resume six-party talks unconditionally and without any preconditions and then we can put all the issues concerning nuclear as a package on the table and discuss every issue as a single agenda" THE NORTH KOREAN DELEGATION GIVING A SPEECH AT TOULOUSE UNIVERSITY
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVACFASP5XVJ4WY9NSIPDFFHEWD5
  • Story Text: North Korea's top envoy in France slammed U.S. policy towards the country on Friday (November 18) accusing Washington of dictating conditions for a resumption of negotiations to end its nuclear programme.
    Yun Yong Il, the country's ambassador to UNESCO said in a rare public address by a North Korean official that the instability in their country came from the US policy, and called for the resumption on six-party talks on their nuclear package.
    The North Korean Ambassador spoke in his own language to the students and the North Korean deputy ambassador at UNESCO, Ri Yong Ho, translated in English.
    "We must resume six-party talks unconditionally and without any preconditions and then we can put all the issues concerning nuclear as a package on the table," he said while addressing university students in Toulouse, southwest France.
    The North Korea delegate said Pyongyang had "no option" but to forge ahead with its nuclear deterrent given that China, Russia and the United States were nuclear powers on its doorstep. He said their nuclear deterrent would provide them with a peaceful solution.
    The United States ended two days of talks with North Korea at the end of October sounding upbeat on an eventual return to wider talks to end Pyongyang's atomic programmes.
    The talks in October followed discussions in July, the first since six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme collapsed in 2008. The wider talks include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
    The United States and South Korea insist that the North immediately halt its uranium enrichment work, which it unveiled last year, as a precursor to restarting regional talks that would offer aid in return for de-nuclearisation.
    Yun, who refused to take questions from about 100 students, also declined to speak to Reuters to clarify his comments.
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