
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993                   TAG: 9305310020
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

NORTH KOREA VOWS NOT TO OPEN N-PLANTS

North Korea told the United States on Sunday that it would reject pressure to open its nuclear program to international inspection.

In a commentary, the official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun urged the United States to use upcoming talks between the two countries to end what it said were hostile policies toward North Korea.

But it said remarks by American officials "give the impression that they intend to use the upcoming talks as an opportunity to put pressure on, thinking that things will go as they please if they do so."

"No pressure can work and the problem cannot be solved by such means," said the commentary, referring to possible U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The commentary was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The talks, to begin Wednesday, are only the second high-level negotiations between North Korea and the United States since 1945. The United States, a close ally of pro-Western South Korea, has no formal ties with North Korea.

North Korea declared in March that it would withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty in response to demands for expanded inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Kang Sok Ju, North Korea's first vice minister of foreign affairs, departed Sunday for the talks with U.S. officials in New York, North Korea's news agency said.

by CNB