By Xinhua
Pyongyang : North Korea Friday said the completion of its denuclearisation process depends upon other related parties, including the US, fulfilling their obligations under the agreement of six-party talks.
It was the first official response from the communist country to the denuclearisation issue after it missed a year-end deadline to make a full and complete declaration on its nuclear programme.
“We (North Korea) have suspended the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and started the disablement process under the agreement of six-party talks,” said the government-owned Minju Jonson daily.
Noting that some parties involved in the denuclearisation talks have failed to “fulfil their relevant obligations”, the newspaper said: “We have to take the measures to adjust the speed of disablement process.”
The newspaper emphasised that parties have to follow the “principle of action to action” in the process of denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula, warning: “Anyone who does not fulfil the obligation should take the responsibility”.
The newspaper did not elaborate on how the other parties postponed fulfilment of their obligations.
The six-party talks, initiated in 2003, involved China, North Korea, the US, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
According to a six-party talks’ joint document released in Beijing Oct 3, 2006, Pyongyang agreed to disable all the existing nuclear facilities and provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programmes by the end of 2007.
The document said the disablement of the five-MW experimental reactor, the reprocessing plant (radiochemical laboratory) and the nuclear fuel rod fabrication facility in Yongbyon would be completed by Dec 31, 2007.
In exchange of disablement of its nuclear facilities, North Korea is to receive economic assistance from the negotiating parties.