24th April, 2003
Ministry of External affairs  


PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA TO DISMANTLE ATOMIC WEAPONS


RAJYA SABHA

The North Korean question has been raised by India with its interlocutors at several levels.

While responding to a question on the three-way meeting to be held in Beijing on North Korean issue, US Secretary of State Colin Powell stated on 16 April, in the course of a Press Interview in Washington DC, that "we have been in intense consultations with our friends in the region and we have put in place arrangements for a multilateral meeting, initially consisting of the United states, North Korea and China". Secretary of State Powell also stated that "This is good news for the region. It is good news for North Korea, frankly, because it gives them the opportunity to present their positions, to come into this trilateral meeting and speak candidly in front of the United states and the Chinese with respect to their concerns; and it gives us the opportunity to do the same; and it gives the Chinese, who have a commitment to a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula, to express their point of view as well".

This information was given by the Minister of State for External affairs Shri Digvijay Singh in Rajya Sabha today.