North Korea - nuclear

North Korea to quit disarmament talks and restore nuclear facilities

Article published on the 2009-04-14 Latest update 2009-04-14 10:51 TU

South Korean protestors with defaced portraits of Kim Jong-Il.
(Photo: AFP)

North Korea says it will quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and restore nuclear facilities, following the United Nations condemnation of its rocket launch last week.

Pyongyang said the UN Security Council's discussion over the launch was "an unbearable insult" to its people.

"There is no need for the six-party talks any more," said North Korean foreign ministry in a statement aired on the Korean Central News Agency. "We will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks."

North Korea "will strengthen its nuclear deterrent for its defence by all means," it added.

The statement came hours after the UN Security Council unanimously condemned the 5 April rocket launch. The council issued a non-binding statement that the launch violated a resolution passed after North Korea's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.

The council agreed to tighten sanctions, which were mandated under the resolution but never enforced amid hopes of progress on denuclearisation.

But a statement is not sufficient, British Korean researcher Aidan Foster-Carter told RFI.

"Everybody is fed up with Kim Jong-Il," he says. "It's just words frankly, and what is the saying about sticks and stones? I don't think words will hurt Kim Jong-Il".

China and Russia resisted calls for a new resolution, saying they did not want to harm prospects of resuming disarmament talks with the rest of the six-nations group, the two Koreas, Japan and the US.

"We hope relevant parties can ... show calmness and restraint so as to work together to safeguard the process of the six-party talks", urged a spokesperson from China's Foreign Ministry.