North Korea's chief negotiator to the ongoing six-party Korean Peninsula nuclear talks said yesterday that his country should enjoy the right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.

"All countries in the world enjoy the right to use nuclear power peacefully," said Kim Kye-gwan. "North Korea is neither a defeated nation in a war nor a nation having committed any crimes, so why should we not be allowed to use nuclear power peacefully?"

Kim, also vice foreign minister, was speaking outside the North Korean Embassy in Beijing following a heads-of-delegation meeting last night.
 
He expressed dissatisfaction with the US' opposition to North Korea's peaceful use of nuclear power and said all other participating nations in the talks understood his country's position.

Kim also expressed his belief that the US would eventually be persuaded to support a peaceful North Korean nuclear program, but that remaining differences in their political stances have produced a stalemate in the drafting process of a common document.
 
He said North Korea and the US are still unable to establish mutual trust on the normalization of bilateral ties.
 
"This round of talks aims at realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula," he said. "We will make every effort to help the talks achieve progress, and the talks will continue."
 
The current round of six-party talks, involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the US entered its eleventh day today.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2005)