DPRK denies saying of joint nuclear test with Iran
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-27 13:43
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sunday denied Japanese saying of DPRK-Iran joint test of detonating devices for nuclear bombs and criticized the Japanese newspaper's practice of telling sheer lies to speak for the United States.
It was reported that Japanese ultra-right conservative forces Sankei Shimbun said in a newspaper of Japan that a six-member Iranian technical delegation comprising physicists and computer experts entered the DPRK in
May expecting to conduct a joint test of detonating devices for nuclear bombs with DPRK, involving the examination of neutron by using nuclear facilities in the DPRK for six months starting from July.
"There had been no deal in the field of nuclear technology between the DPRK and Iran and no delegation on such mission came here, either," said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), adding that "it was nothing but a cynical ploy to put pressure upon the DPRK, taking advantage of the US moves to charge the DPRK with the nuclear proliferation."
The report said that some Japanese newspaper "hasn't dropped its bad habit of seeking its own interests by sowing seeds of dissension among other countries and nations."
"The Japanese society and media need to be cautious about this practice of telling sheer lies to speak for the US. though it professes to be an influential paper in Japan," said the KCNA.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-06/27/content_343143.htm
U.S. raises temperature in nuke row with Iran
27 Jun 2004 14:36:07 GMT
(Adds Rice quotes, Iranian foreign minister, byline)
By Adam Entous
ISTANBUL, June 27 (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday condemned Iran for persisting with what Washington says is an atomic bomb-making programme but Tehran vowed to resist such international pressure.
"Iran needs to come clean and fully cooperate with its international obligations," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters travelling with U.S. President George W. Bush to a NATO summit in Istanbul.
"Iran's continued failure to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency and continued failure to stop all enrichment-related reprocessing activities only reinforce the concern we have expressed," McClellan said.
Iran said on Sunday it would resist pressure to reverse its decision to produce parts for centrifuges that enrich uranium, reneging on a pledge to suspend all enrichment activities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that "making centrifuges is different from enriching uranium."
"It is Iran's natural right to resume assembling and making centrifuges," he said. Iran insists its ambitions are peaceful.
Iran's decision was a retaliation against a resolution last week from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, that "deplored" Iran's failure to cooperate fully with IAEA inspectors.
But Iran also pledged to continue to allow IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites for short-notice inspections under the IAEA's Additional Protocol, which Tehran signed last year but has yet to ratify.
If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used as fuel for electricity-generating reactors such as the one Iran is building on its south coast. But if enriched further, to weapons-grade, it can be deployed in warheads.
TOUGH U.S. LINE
Washington has pushed its Western allies to take a tougher line on Iran but Britain, Germany and France have resisted, preferring to try to persuade Tehran that it is in its interests to come clean on nuclear activities.
"We have been, the United States, the most aggressive and the most certain about our view that the Iranians are trying to ...acquire military uses for nuclear power, maybe even nuclear weapons," U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told U.S. television on Sunday.
"It's a very tough situation but we believe that this is one that still has a diplomatic solution within sight," she added.
McClellan said Iran's defiance would help persuade other countries to consider referring the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions.
"I think this latest move may only serve to convince others of the need to seriously consider that step," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27649348.htm