South Korea’s Lee seeks halt to North Korea’s nuclear production

ISTANBUL

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday sought a halt to North Korea’s production of nuclear weapons, the Chosun Daily reported.

Lee made these remarks addressing investors in New York.

“The emphasis is on achieving security and economic gains by opening dialogue with North Korea to halt nuclear weapons and nuclear material production, rather than pursuing denuclearization,” the South Korean daily quoted Lee.

His latest remarks follow his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday when he acknowledged that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was impossible in the short term.

“North Korea appears to have already sufficiently secured the nuclear weapons necessary for regime maintenance, and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology, capable of bombing the US, is also nearly at its final stage,” Lee said Thursday.

Early today, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young claimed North Korea possessed up to 2,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

North Korea has said its nuclear status was "irreversible.”

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, North Korea was estimated to possess around 50 nuclear warheads as of January, the same as last year. It possesses enough fissile material to produce up to 40 more nuclear warheads.

Since being elected in June this year, the Lee administration has taken several steps to restore ties with North Korea.

Chung said in Seoul on Thursday that his ministry was in talks with the Defense Ministry about suspending live-fire drills and military field training near the inter-Korean border.

"It is the Unification Ministry's position that it is fair to suspend shooting drills and field trainings in regions near the Demilitarized Zone," he said.