Speech at Lincoln University Society Debate "North Korea should be permitted a nuclear programme"

Firstly the policy of the US and other countries towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

on the nuclear issue is one of hypocrisy and double standards. It is the US that is the biggest possesor of nuclear weapons and has carried out 1,000 nuclear tests. The US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons and significantly it used nuclear weapons against a state which at the time did not possess nuclear weapons. The US and its friends allow India , Pakistan and Israel to have nuclear weapons but regard it as a crime for the DPRK to the same.

The DPRK's nuclear programme is both vital and absolutely necessary both from the point of view of self-defence and also to produce cheap energy in order to develop the national economy andimprove people's living standards. The DPRK's nuclear programme is the independent rightof the DPRK , a matter of inviolable sovereignty.

The civilian use of nuclear energy in the DPRK which began on an experimental basis back in the 1960s is crucial for tackling shortages of energy that has arisen in the DPRK economydue to its rapid development. In the past the DPRK relied on hydro-electric power for roughly50 % of energy needs , however this became problematic because of a series of droughts which severely affected the operation of hydro-electric power stations. Some energy needs are met by coal fired power stations but reserves of coal are of course finite . So nuclear power is the best option for the DPRK.

It is actually the US that has caused the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula and has created the need for the nuclear armament of the DPRK. The US considered the use of nuclear weapons during the 1950-1953 Korean War . An article of the US owned Associated Press of October 9th 2010 stated “Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in interviews published posthumously, said he had a plan at the time to drop 30 to 50 atom bombs across the northern neck of the Korean peninsula” . Later on “The Pentagon’s Air Staff recommended using A-bombs to achieve victory “in the shortest space of time,” according to a Feb. 20, 1953, memo from the Air Force director of plans,Maj. Gen. Robert Lee.” . After the end of the Korean War the US came close to using nuclear weapons against the DPRK in 1969 and in 1976. In 1969 to quote the AP article "USAF tactical fighters armed with nuclear weapons are on 15-minute alert in ROK (Republic of Korea) to strike airfields in North Korea," said the contingency plan Defense Secretary Melvin Laird sent to White House national security chief Henry Kissinger, a document obtained by the National Security Archive”

In April this year the US sent nuclear armed B52 and B2 bombers to Korea to carry out practise nuclear bombings.

The US turned south Korea into its nuclear forward base. In 1957 they brought into south Korea the Honest John tactical nuclear missile . This was in clear violation ofArticle 13(d) of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement. At one point south Korea had 1700 US nuclear weapons on its soil making giving it a higher density of nuclear weapons than Europe during the cold war. The US refused to confirm or deny whether it had nuclear weapons insouth Korea and indeed their existence was again disclosed in 2005. Anyway it is easy for the US to bring nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula on submarines or by the air.

The Bush administration in 2002 declared the DPRK to be the target of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and Obama excluded the DPRK from a no first use of nuclear weapons pledge.

It would be sheer naivety for the DPRK not to have nuclear weapons , no one should expect the DPRK to defend themselves with bare hands . The DPRK lives under the constant threat of aggression from the US . The DPRK occupies a key geo-strategic position in Asia .It is the strategic scenario of the U.S. policy makers to invade the DPRK by every method and means, seize the areas along Rivers Amnok and Tuman as a bridgehead and invade China and Russia to put vast areas of Eurasia under its control. Also the DPRK is said to have a large quantity of rare earth minerals . Lastly the US and other western countries want to eliminate the DPRK because they see it as the 'last bastion of hardline communism'.

Since the end of the Korean war the DPRK has been targetted bya total 18,000 war drillsstaged by the US and south Korea. This year the US and south Korea carried the Foal Eagle andKey Resolve military exercises from March to the end of April. These involved huge quantities of military hardware including nuclear weapons and some 200,000 troops including contingents fromthe UK, Canada , Australia and Colombia .

Is not a matter of fact that no state with nuclear weapons has ever fallen victim to aggression by a foreign power , is it not a fact that Iraq was attacked because it did not have nuclear weapons , it is not a fact that Libya was attacked after it gave up its nuclear programme. ?

Thus the DPRK should not and will not give up its nuclear programme.

Thank you for listening.

 

Note the FCO declined the invitation to send a speaker and the US and south Korean embassies failed to send a speaker