S.Korea urges DPRK to drop nuclear test plan

The South Korean government on Wednesday called on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to drop its plan to conduct a nuclear test and return to the six-party talks.

Following a policy coordination meeting of security-related ministers at the Presidential House on Wednesday morning, the South Korean government released a statement through a nationwide broadcast, as its official response to the DPRK's announcement of a possible nuclear test.

"The South Korean government expresses very serious concern and regret over it," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho in the statement.

"The government clearly reaffirms the position that it would never be acceptable (to the South Korean government) for the North (DPRK) to possess nuclear weapons, and the government urges the North to immediately scrap the plan for a nuclear test," he said.

The DPRK "will have to take all responsibility for all the consequences of a nuclear test," said Choo, appealing that the DPRK "should not take any more actions to worsen the situation, and it will have to return to the six-party talks (on the nuclear issues of the Korean Peninsula)."

The statement said a test of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang will violate the 1991 Joint Declaration for the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in which South Korea and the DPRK promised not to produce, test or possess nuclear weapons.

The DPRK on Tuesday announced that it would conduct a nuclear test "under conditions where safety is firmly guaranteed," as a deterrent against increasingly hostile U.S. policies.

The South Korean government decided on Tuesday to step up its surveillance of the DPRK's nuclear activities and tighten security.

Source: Xinhua