Rammell starts “long haul” to peace trip
Bill Rammell, junior Foreign Office minister, begins an historic trip to North Korea (DPRK) on Friday.
He is set to become the first British minister to visit the reclusive communist state.
North Korea is believed to be in possession of one or two nuclear weapons.
In 2002, the Stalinist state restarted its nuclear programme, fuelling fears of a new nuclear arms race in Asia.
Meeting with foreign minister Paek Nam Sun and other senior figures, Mr Rammell will reflect the British government’s view that Pyongyang must end its nuclear weapons programme or face tough United Nation’s sanctions.
Ahead of the journey, Mr Rammell said his visit symbolised the start of “a very, very long haul to try to edge North Korea back from complete isolation”.
“North Korea has a key choice,” he said.
“It can engage in this process and get rid of what it has got and promise not to develop anything further. Then all sorts of positives can come its way. Isolation is the alternative route.”
Mr Rammell will encourage the impoverished nation to join six-nation talks in Asia aimed at resolving the country’s nuclear brinkmanship.
A fourth round of six-nation talks – between China, Russia, Japan, the US and the two Koreas – begins this month.
Mr Rammell is also to discuss allegations of “appalling human rights abuses” in the North and looks set to call for independent inspections of nuclear installations.
Glen Allen, director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, has called for unfettered access to prisons to assess the conditions and treatment of prisoners there.
The visit comes after South Korea admitted on Thursday to undertaking experiments to enrich small amounts of nuclear material during atomic vapour tests in the late 1980s.
In the wake of the revelation last week that South Korea secretly enriched uranium four years ago, the North said Seoul’s actions could “accelerate a northeast Asia nuclear arms race”.
Pyongyang has accused the US of double standards in its response to South Korea’s revelations.
But John Bolton, US under secretary of state, said Seoul must also abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Jon Benjamin, the Foreign Office’s chief human rights expert, is travelling with Mr Rammell.
US president George Bush has labelled North Korea a member of his “axis of evil” along with pre-Saddam Iraq and Iran.
