N. Korea urges Japan to drop 'hostile' policy, sanctions after election+

PYONGYANG, Aug. 12 Kyodo - North Korea wants the next Japanese administration after the upcoming general election to drop Tokyo's ''hostile'' policy toward Pyongyang through the lifting of sanctions and other ice-thawing measures, a North Korean official in charge of Japanese affairs said Wednesday.

In an interview with Kyodo News in Pyongyang, Ro Jong Su, a director-level
researcher at the Foreign Ministry, dismissed the claim in some circles in the
United States that Japan and South Korea could go nuclear unless the
international community stops Pyongyang's nuclear development, calling such a
claim ''outrageous'' and ''far from the reality.''
Ro repeated North Korea's stance that it will never return to the six-party
talks on denuclearizing Pyongyang, suggesting the country will seek bilateral
talks with the United States to address the North Korean nuclear standoff.
He also said Japan's ''hostile'' policy has made it difficult for North Korea
to launch a fresh investigation into cases of abduction of Japanese nationals,
which the two sides agreed to at bilateral talks a year ago in China.
Asked about a potential change of power in Japan following the Aug. 30 House of
Representatives election, Ro said, ''No matter what sort of an administration
will emerge, we want to see a change in Japan's current (North) Korean
policy.''
Ro said bilateral relations have fallen into ''the worst level,'' criticizing
Japan's recent actions such as strengthening bilateral sanctions, asking the
United States not to remove North Korea from its terrorist sponsors list and
leading U.N. Security Council talks to slap stricter sanctions on Pyongyang in
response to its rocket launch in April.
''Unless Japan abandons such anti-(North) Korea policy, we don't expect to see
any change in the current (North) Korea-Japan relations,'' he said. ''Japan may
believe it can draw some concession from us by imposing pressure. But that is
wrong.''
It was the first time that a North Korean Foreign Ministry official in charge
of Japanese affairs has spoken to the media since Kyodo News conducted a
similar interview in November last year in Pyongyang.
Rebutting argument by some circles in the United States that Japan and South
Korea could go nuclear due to the perceived threat posed by North Korea, Ro
said, ''Nobody will believe the claim that Japan and South Korea are exposed to
'nuclear threat' because they are under the 'nuclear umbrella' of the United
States, which has the biggest number of nuclear weapons in the world.''
''Japan and South Korea are effectively the same as nuclear powers because they
are protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella and U.S. military forces stationed
in the countries,'' he said.
North Korea has never been provided with any nuclear umbrella to cope with what
it views as the U.S. nuclear threat, the researcher said. ''So we have no
choice but to possess nuclear (weapons) to fill the nuclear vacuum in the
region,'' he said.
Similarly, Ro criticized some forces in Japan who advocate that it should go
nuclear, saying such an argument ''is not intended to protect the country, but
to arm the country with nuclear weapons by using us as an excuse.''
Citing moves by the United States, Japan and South Korea to bring the matter of
North Korea's rocket launch in April before the U.N. Security Council, Ro said
the six-party talks mechanism has turned into a forum that seeks to ''block our
country's normal economic development.''
''If (others) call for resumption of the six-party talks without seeing through
the real nature of the problem, it does not help to ease tensions in the Korean
Peninsula,'' he said. ''It will only worsen the situation.''
North Korea quit the six-party talks involving China, the two Koreas, Japan,
Russia and the United States in April in protest at a U.N. Security Council
statement denouncing its launch of what it claims was a satellite but which was
widely seen as a disguised missile test.
In mid-July, a U.N. sanctions committee slapped a new set of sanctions on North
Korea based on Resolution 1874, which the U.N. Security Council adopted June 12
in response to Pyongyang's second nuclear test May 25.
==Kyodo