N. Korea to gain little from a second nuke test: Lee aide

By Sam Kim
ABOARD SEJONG THE GREAT, South Korea, May 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will achieve
little if it goes ahead with a second atomic test, a top South Korean
presidential aide warned Thursday, deploring aid given to Pyongyang as it has
resumed its nuclear activities.
North Korea, which conducted its first test in 2006, announced last month it
would conduct additional nuclear and missile tests, demanding an apology for the
U.N. condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.
"The international community will no longer concede to North Korea's demand even
if it launches a long-range rocket, resumes its nuclear activities and conducts
an additional nuclear test," said Kim Tae-hyo, presidential secretary for
national security strategy.
Kim, who has worked at Cheong Wa Dae since President Lee Myung-bak took office
early last year, was speaking in a keynote speech to commemorate a defense
conference aboard Sejong the Great, South Korea's first-ever Aegis combat
destroyer.
Kim said North Korea has breached two disarmament-for-assistance agreements since
1994, and deplored the resumption of the nuclear weapons programs despite the aid
that has been given to Pyongyang.
"Assistance that has been provided to North Korea cannot be reversed. Yet the
nuclear facilities at Yongbyon are being restored," he said.
Yongbyon, 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang, is home to a reactor that was
disabled under a six-nation nuclear pact. The North has recently resumed its
operation, vowing to jettison the talks that also include the U.S., South Korea,
Japan, Russia and China.
North Korea, which runs one of the poorest economies in the world, has received
aid worth nearly US$1.3 billion since 1995, a year after the Geneva Agreed
Framework, according to a U.S. report.
The agreement called for the provision of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil if
North Korea mothballed facilities capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
North Korea should "abandon its idea that it can have nuclear weapons, diplomatic
ties with the United States and support from the international community at the
same time," Kim said.
The destroyer, which led the South Korean military operation to detect and track
the North Korean rocket, was docked at a naval port on the east coast.
North Korea claims it put a satellite into orbit with the launch, which the U.S.
and its allies say was a disguised test of ballistic missile technology.
Relations between the Koreas are at the lowest point in a decade after Lee
pledged upon his inauguration that he would link economic aid to North Korean
efforts to denuclearize.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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