President Park Geun-hye expressed deep concerns about North Korea’s ceaseless nuclear program in an interview with a Dutch public broadcaster on March 21. She said that, “Nuclear facilities possessed by the North could lead to a bigger catastrophe than the nuclear holocaust of Chernobyl back in 1986.”

According to Cheong Wa Dae on March 23, speaking to Dutch broadcaster NOS, President Park stated that Pyongyang’s nuclear materials pose grave threats to Northeast Asia and world peace, as well as to security across the Korean Peninsula itself.



“Nuclear material transferred from Pyongyang, in the worst case, could fall into the wrong hands of terrorists,” the president said. “That could also prompt regional neighbors to compete in a nuclear arms race.”

Pointing out that there are many nuclear reactors concentrated in the Yongbyon nuclear complex in Pyonganbuk-do (North Pyongan Province), she expressed concerns that, “A possible fire at one of buildings there could lead to a bigger nuclear disaster than that of Chernobyl.”

When asked about the government’s firm stance of providing economic assistance to the North only if it gives up its nuclear arms, the president mentioned that, “The North, in this regard, won’t accept that in itself, as it argues that its nuclear program is in line with the nation’s policy and that it is not an issue that can be discussed between the South and the North.”

The president also proposed a global pilot project to denuclearize the North and to achieve a nuclear-fee Korean peninsula. She stressed the importance of the international community in maintaining watertight unity in disarming the North, saying “If cooperation disperses in other directions, going here and there, not united, the effort will soon run out of steam and will produce nothing.”

In addition, when asked about the possibility of China wielding a veto against a U.N. report on the North’s human rights situation, a report which states that the North has committed organized, extensive crimes against humanity, the president affirmed that, “Unless China does not exercise its veto right, I don't think the impact on Pyongyang’s human rights situation will be that strong.”

By Wi Tack-whan, Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writers
whan23@korea.kr