Defector Says N. Korea Will Never Give up Nukes

A high-ranking North Korean defector says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will not, by any means, abandon his country's nuclear weapons.
Thae Yong-ho, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to London who defected to South Korea in 2016, made the assessment in his book released on Monday, citing a conversation held between North Korea and China’s foreign ministers in 2006 shortly after the North’s first nuclear test.
Thae quoted then North Korean Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju as saying that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can only happen when the North’s nuclear weapons drive out the U.S.’ nuclear arms and Pyongyang secures a guarantee from Washington that it will not use its nuclear arsenal.
Thae said Kang was conveying then leader Kim Jong-il’s stance that Pyongyang would never scrap its nuclear weapons program.
The defector said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un used the term “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” instead of “North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement,” because Pyongyang is intent on pursuing its goal of kicking out U.S. forces on the peninsula.
On the Panmujeom Declaration stipulating that the two sides agree to adopting practical steps towards the connection and modernization of the railways on the eastern transportation corridor, Thae said the same concept had been mentioned in the June 15th Joint Declaration adopted in 2000. He said such steps had failed to be taken due to the problem of relocating military bases located along the railways.
He forecast that the two Koreas will again face the same problem unless South Korea and Russia pay costs to relocate the bases.
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