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Roh says nuclear North Korea no match in warfare to the South
North Korea armed with nuclear weapons is still no match for the South, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 December 8, 2006
Seoul: North Korea armed with nuclear weapons is still no match for the South, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said.
Pyongyang knows better than to attack its neighbour because it cannot win, Roh Moo-hyun was quoted as saying on Thursday.
"North Korea may possess some nuclear weapons, but South Korea can maintain a sufficient equilibrium in terms of military power," Roh was quoted as telling South Korean residents in Sydney by Yonhap news agency.
"The balance can even said to be superior [in favour of South Korea)]"
Roh said on Wednesday in Canberra that his government's priority is to avoid armed confrontation with the North and that it knows the North's intentions better than any other country.
"Conquest [by the North] is impossible and the idea of it ruling [the South] is even more impossible," Roh said, adding: "A country that cannot rule [another] does not try to conquer."
North Korea said on October 9 that it had successfully conducted its first nuclear test and became a nuclear state.
It said three weeks later that it would return to six-party talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons programme in return for aid and better ties with Washington after staying away for more than a year.
But no date has been set for the new round of the talks.
North and South Korea remain technically at war because the truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War has never been replaced with a peace treaty.
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