by Friends of the Earth, Australian Peace Committee –

nonukes@foesyd.org.au

SYDNEY (October 3, 2003) — Australian Peace groups Friends of the Earth, Australian Peace Committee and Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament have warned that we ignore the DPRK’s claimed nuclear capability at our peril. The groups say that the likely existence of a DPRK nuclear capability, possibly with 8-10 warheads and a delivery capability, rules out military options completely. According to the groups:

“Even if it were to turn out later to have been a bluff — a possibility that looks less and less likely — the wise and responsible thing is to assume that the DPRK has what it says it has, and has a means to deliver it.

“For too long the Bush administration has dismissed DPRK claims as bluff, and followed up with memos on military options and regime change. It is high time to realize that there are no military options, and that talk such as this puts cities such as Seoul, Tokyo and possibly US West Coast cities at risk.

“The DPRK has made it very clear that it is looking for security. Whatever the difficulties of dealing with the DPRK regime, this has been crystal-clear right from the start. There is only one way out and that is to give the DPRK the security it wants and to give it a real incentive to proceed down a different path to the one of isolation and nuclear weapons manufacture.
“Isolation and threats on the other hand, are going to achieve precisely the opposite effect to the desired one. Isolation and threats are what has bought us to the situation we are in right now, and will push the DPRK to go on producing more and more nuclear weapons and more and more missiles. Finally it may indeed culminate is disaster.”

Contact: John Hallam 02-9567-7533, 02-9810-2598 Irene Gale AM (APC) 08-8364-2291 Pauline Mitchell CICD 03-9663-3677. nonukes@foesyd.org.au