WikiLeaks: N. Korea will use nuclear weapons in exchange for normalization with US
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan talks to press as leaves his hotel to meet with US Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration’s top envoy on North Korean affairs at the US Mission to the United Nations July 28, 2011 in New York. The two are holding talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapon program.
North Korea will use its nuclear weapons as the "final card" in exchange for the normalization of ties with the United States, reports Arirang, a Korean television station.
WikiLeaks, a site that publishes government documents from around the world, leaked the U.S. cable that reveals the statement allegedly made by North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan to Kim Suk of South Korea, according to Arirang.
"[He] told his South Korean counterpart in 2008 that Pyeongyang will hold onto its nuclear weapons card until the end of the multilateral nuclear disarmament talks and use it in exchange for the normalization of diplomatic ties with the United States," reports Arirang.
The statement was made during the six-party talks in 2008 in Beijing, which included the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas, reports The WikiLeaks Forum.
South Korea's new nuclear envoy is heading to the United States today for talks about North Korea's nuclear ambitions, reports The Boston Globe. North Korea wants to resume the six-party disarmament-for-aid talks immediately, but South Korea and the U.S. maintain that North Korea must first abide by what was agreed upon in the first round of talks, The Globe reports.
The cable is posted here.