PYONGYANG, July 7. /TASS/. North Korea has offered a plan of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Rondong Sinmun newspaper said on Thursday.
The newspaper cites a statement of a North Korean government spokesman saying that "a major breakthrough is possible" if the United States and South Korea give Pyongyang guarantees on five matters.
Thus, North Korea demands the United States and South Korea provide information about US nuclear weapons deployed in South Korea, close US military bases in South Korea and pull out nuclear weapons from these bases. Apart from that, according to the North Korean government spokesman, Washington must guarantee that it will not deploy offensive nuclear weapons in South Korea and neighboring countries and will not use them against North Korea. The statement also urges the United States to withdraw US servicemen "enjoying the right to use nuclear weapons" from the south of the Korean Peninsula.
According to Pyongyang, neither the United States nor South Korea "have any reasons to turn down these fair demands of Pyongyang if they are really interested in solving the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula." If Washington and Seoul implement these demands, North Korea "will take reciprocal measures promoting denuclearization of this region," as follows from the statement. Otherwise, Pyongyang will continue to build up its nuclear forces both in terms of quality and in terms of quantity.