North Korea Wants “Peaceful” Nuclear Program

Is anyone really surprised that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has spoken out saying that North Korea should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear program?

North Korea should be allowed to maintain a peaceful nuclear energy program as long as it verifiably scraps its weapons development, a top South Korean official said Thursday, signaling a major split in opinion between Seoul and Washington in the nuclear negotiations.

In an interview with local Internet portal Daum Media, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young argued that electricity-starved Pyongyang has the right to generate nuclear energy.

Now why would North Korea need these “peaceful” nuclear power plants when South Korea is offering them more than enough electrical power already in the negotiations? Here is this from the Washington Post:

South Korea has offered to supply the North with electric power equivalent to the output of two unfinished nuclear plants if the communist state gives up its nuclear weapons, South Korean officials said Tuesday.

Chung Dong Young, South Korea’s unification minister, called the offer a “last chance” for the government in Pyongyang, which in 1994 signed a deal with the Clinton administration for construction of the plants. South Korean officials gave details of the new plan as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Tuesday evening on the last leg of an Asian tour.

Last month, South Korea was willing to give them enough power equal to two nuclear power plants for an electrical grid in North Korea which can’t even handle that much power to begin with and Minister Chung at the time last month called this a “last chance” for North Korea. Now this month he does a complete about face and says that North Korea should be allowed to have a “peaceful” nuclear program. What happened to all the “last chance” talk?

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but North Korea never had any intentions of ending their nuclear program from the beginning of the six party talks, and South Korea knows this and probably everyone else involved with the talks knows this too.