Workers and Students Hold Up Cards at Pyongyang's Arirang Festival at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, Oct. 10, 2005; Kim Jong-il Enjoys the Show.

—READ: North Korean Defectors Tell What It's Like to Perform in the Annual North Korean Arirang or 'Card' festival
—BBC NEWS VIDEO: Amazing Footage of Celebrations for the 60th Anniversary of the Ruling Korean Workers' Party, October 10, 2005

Kim Jong-il Wonders, 'If Israel Has Nukes, Why Can't I?'

Washington permits some countries outside of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty to possess nuclear weapons, but not North Korea! This is a grand injustice, in the eyes of Pyongyang. According to this article from North Korea’s Communist Party newspaper, unless the U.S. ends its ‘nuclear double standard,’ global stability will be ‘disturbed.’

October 23, 2005

Original Article (English)    

Pyongyang:  The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea will neither accept nor allow Washington’s unjust double standards in regard to the nuclear issue to linger on into the future. There will only be the prospect of settling the nuclear issue when the United States abandons its unfair and prejudiced double standards, as North Korea demands. The Rodong Sinmun [Communist Party Newspaper] said today in a signed commentary. It goes on:

The United States allows some countries [Israel, India] to proceed without trouble, even after failing to fulfill their commitments under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), while pressurizing other countries [North Korea] to remain true to it.

Washington has connived at and even cooperated with Israel in its development and production of nuclear weapons, and kept mum about Japan, which has stepped up its program to emerge as a nuclear power by stockpiling plutonium beyond what it actually needs.

Recently, America’s nuclear double standards have become even more blatant. To cite just a few examples, it has expressed its willingness to permit countries outside of the NPT to have peaceful nuclear programs if they transfer their nuclear technology to the United States. In the final analysis, Washington’s position on the nuclear issue depends on whether a country is or is not its ally.
Its approach to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is typical of this double standard.

North Korea demands that the United States take measures to treat it as it does other countries outside the NPT that possess nuclear weapons. America’s  statement that it respects North Korea’s sovereignty as a member of the United Nations will be proven only when it acts as such.

If Washington persistently clings to its double standards and lends no ear to North Korea’s demands, the result will paralyze the world’s nuclear non-proliferation regime and disturb global stability.

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