▲ Hwang Jang Yop, President of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea ⓒ the Daily NK

Regarding North Korea’s demolition show at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor on June 27, Hwang Jang Yop, President of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, said that Kim Jong Il used the already useless Yongbyon nuclear complex in his negotiations with the U.S.

Chairman Hwang said “The Yongbyon nuclear complex is an obsolete piece of junk,” in radio program “Hwang Jang Yop’s lectures,” aired by Free North Korea Radio on June 30.

Previously, right after the February 13 Agreement was signed at the Six Party Talks last year, Hwang said, “North Korea refers to the Yongbyon nuclear complex only when it talks about freezing nuclear facilities.” He said, “The Yongbyon nuclear reactor was used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. Indeed, it has already produced enough [nuclear weapons].”

He said, “In 1996, I heard the secretary in charge of the munitions industry saying, ‘We do not need plutonium any more. We can now produce nuclear weapons with Uranium-235.’ North Korea must have subsequently produced nuclear weapons using its uranium enrichment program.”

Hwang said, “The North Korea nuclear problem gives the impression of having been resolved at the Six Party Talks. However, North Korea still refuses to admit that it cooperated with Pakistan to develop nuclear weapons using enriched uranium.” He stressed that North Korea must declare and destroy its HEU programs in accordance with the February 13 Agreement.

Hwang also said, “Kim Jong Il is a selfish coward. He would never use nuclear weapons because he knows that he would lose his life if he does.”

“The fact that North Korea produces nuclear weapons and increases the number of prisons should not concern us. What’s needed is to educate defectors about democracy so that they can help bring about change in the despotic regime of Kim Jong Il,” Hwang said.

“There is a saying that if you tell a lie a hundred times, it becomes the truth. It is important to have our eyes wide open the whole time so that we can see through North Korea’s deceitful propaganda,” President Hwang said.