US Stands Firm on Denuclearization in North Korea Negotiations AsiaToday By Hamanju Hamanju Washington Correspondent = A senior U.S. State Department official has dismissed calls for disarmament talks with North Korea and reaffirmed that denuclearization is the goal. However, the official acknowledged the need for "interim steps" to discuss weapons-related activities and proliferation on the way to the end goal of complete denuclearization. "Our goal is clear, and we will continue to work for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, even if North Korea does not agree to give up its nuclear weapons," Chung Park, the State Department's senior official for North Korea, told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., on Friday (local time), when asked if the United States would be open to achieving disarmament goals such as limiting the number of missiles. "We've heard that argument (disarmament talks) before, and I would say that North Korea is proliferating ballistic missiles and engaging in relations with Russia," he said, noting that "we need to think about what that argument is about in disarmament talks." Putting aside the long-term goal of denuclearizing North Korea for the time being...
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