PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA TO DISMANTLE
ATOMIC WEAPONS
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.