North Korea founder opposed nuclear weapons
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung swore to Beijing in the 1960s that he opposed the development of nuclear weapons, a report said Monday, citing a newly declassified Chinese document.
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
Ailing auto industry awaits returning lawmakers | Sex, lies and scandal: Obama aide has seen it all
In a letter Kim wrote to then-Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai in late October 1964, Kim — father of current leader Kim Jong Il — said North Korea supports banning nuclear weapons and would "unite with the peace-loving people around the world" to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
Kim Il Sung also said in the letter that Pyongyang would continue to fight the atomic threat from the United States and Washington's plot to provoke a nuclear war, the Yonhap report said.
Yonhap said the letter, obtained from China's Foreign Ministry archive, reaffirms North Korean claims that Kim always wanted a nuclear-free Korea. Officials in the ministry's archive department said files from 1961 and 1965 were declassified last week.
China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War and remains Pyongyang's only major ally and a key donor of food and energy.
Kim Il Sung died in 1994, turning over leadership to his son, but the father remains North Korea's "eternal president."
Despite his wishes, Pyongyang steadfastly has pursued atomic weapons, saying it needs a deterrent against nuclear threats from the United States. The regime carried out a nuclear test blast in October 2006.
As part of a disarmament-for-aid pact negotiated with five other nations, North Korea agreed last year to shut down and disable its main nuclear reactor — a process that has been beset by repeated delays.
Last week, Pyongyang denied agreeing to U.S. demands that inspectors be allowed to take samples from its nuclear complex to verify the country's past nuclear activities.
On Monday, a North Korean newspaper that is considered a government mouthpiece called the U.S. "a nuclear war maniac."
In commentary carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper also said it is "entirely just" for North Korea to take measures to bolster its war deterrent because the U.S. is "escalating the moves for a nuclear war."
Take Our Poll:
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
