Hwang Jang-yeop Doesn’t Believe Kim Jung-il’s Statement on Nuclear Weapons

Hwang Jang-yeop, the former secretary of the Labor Party in North Korea, asserted that the first goal of the U.S against terrorism activities should not be Al-Qaeda but instead should be North Korea, on October 31, his fourth day of his visit to the U.S.

Mr. Hwang, during an interview with the U.S.’ NBC News, said, “Kim Jung-il, the leader of North Korea, is cautious and incredibly cruel and will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. Dealing with Al-Qaeda is merely child’s play compared to the current danger of North Korea.”

Mr. Hwang added, “It (the danger) is a lot more severe since North Korea has nuclear power capacity.”

CNN also reported that Mr. Hwang said, “The Kim Jung-il regime is unstable, and it can’t be faithful to conclude an agreement of discarding nuclear weapons with this regime.”

CNN informed that Mr. Hwang said, “The regime makes efforts to appear to be stable to us, but in fact, it is very unstable,” through Christopher Cox, the chief of the policy planning committee of US Representatives, who met him in the morning of the day.

At the press conference after the interview, Mr. Hwang insisted, “You should not believe anything about the nuclear facts of North Korea because of the unstableness of North Korea’s system.”

He said, “It is not meaningful that Kim Jung-il makes promises (of nuclear issues),” Mr. Kwan added, “Didn’t he break the promises that he made at the Geneva Agreement?” He also showed his complaints about the guarantee of North Korea’s security, proposed by George W. Bush, the U.S. president, saying, “I can’t believe that it will be assured that Kim Jung-il will keep his position even if he infringes on the human rights of the North Korean people.”

Mr. Hwang also said, “I understand that it is a diplomatic and political movement” about the six nation’s talks to resolve the nuclear problems of North Korea, but reiterated his opinion opposing the written guarantee of security to North Korea in a multilateral frame, which was suggested by U.S. He insists that the guarantee of the North Korean regime only helps the extension of Kim Jung-il’s reign.

In the meantime, Richard Baucher, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, evaded the concrete statement, saying, “I won’t answer in that way” on the question whether the sudden talks between Richard Amitige, the deputy Secretary of State, and Mr. Hwang has helped to deal with the North Korea issues and talks of nuclear problems.

Mr. Hwang is scheduled to give a speech at an open forum, under the sponsorship of the Defense Forum, at the detached office of Representatives with the subject “What U.S Must Know about North Korea” on October 31.

maypole@donga.com