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North Korea says notinterested in Iran-like nucleartalks with U.S. - IceWizard - 07-21-2015
Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:48am EDT
By James Pearson and Seung Yun Oh
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is not interested in an Iran-like dialogue with the United States to give up its nuclear capabilities, the isolated country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement said North Korea's nuclear
program was an "essential deterrence" against U.S. foreign policy toward the reclusive country, which the North views as hostile.
"It is not logical to compare our situation with the Iranian nuclear agreement because we are always subjected to provocative U.S. military hostilities, including massive joint military exercises and a grave nuclear threat," said the statement, which was carried by state media but attributed to a foreign ministry spokesman.
"We do not have any interest at all on dialogue
for unilaterally freezing or giving up our nukes," it said.
The United States and five world powers struck an historic deal with Iran last week that will limit Iran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief.
The Iran agreement was a great political victory for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has long promised to reach out to historic enemies, including North Korea.
The deal, in return for lifting U.S., EU and UN
sanctions that have crippled its economy,
stipulates that Iran must accept long-term limits
on its nuclear program.
North Korea is also heavily sanctioned by the
United States, European Union and the United
Nations for procuring equipment related to its
ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
"We are clearly a nuclear power and nuclear
powers have their own interests," the North
Korean statement said.
(Reporting by James Pearson and Seung Yun
Oh; Editing by Paul Tait)