(VOVworld) - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday it would not unilaterally dismantle its nuclear deterrent unless outside nuclear threats were removed, the official KCNA news agency reported. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement that the denuclearization of the peninsula did not mean unilateral nuclear disarmament by Pyongyang but a process of realizing a whole nuclear-free peninsula by removing substantial external nuclear threats on the principle of simultaneous actions. Pyongyang also urged Washington to abandon its hostile policies towards the country after US Foreign Secretary John Kerry   said earlier this month that Washington would be open to dialogue if Pyongyang started denuclearization first.
 

Seoul has no plans to initiate negotiations with Pyongyang on the reunions of families separated in the Korean war during 1950-1953. Photo: internet

In a related development, the Republic of Korea’s Unification ministry spokesman, Kim Eui-do, on Wednesday said that Seoul had no plans to initiate negotiations with Pyongyang on the reunions of families separated in the Korean war during 1950-1953 or to resume tours to Kumgang in the Democratic Republic of Korea. The ministry also announced that Pyongyang has accepted a proposal by a group of senators from the Republic of Korea to visit the inter-Korean factory park in Kaesong on the border of the two Koreas.