A former diplomat in Pyongyang cast doubt Wednesday on North Korea’s willingness to denuclearise, saying its officials believe Libya’s regime would have survived had it kept its nuclear weapons. Diplomatic efforts are under way to revive six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament. South Korea and the United States have held preparatory discussions with the North since July. But Peter Hughes, the outgoing British ambassador to Pyongyang, said senior officials there had told him that “if Colonel Gaddafi had not given up his nuclear weapons, then NATO would not have attacked his country”. The Libyan strongman was ousted by rebel forces supported by NATO air attacks, more than seven years after he announced his country would give up programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction. Hughes also told a forum in Seoul the North’s regime “has made very clear that their over-riding policy is total denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. “You have to look behind that to find out what it means. It basically means in real terms that there would have to be total denuclearisation of the world before they will give up their nuclear weapons.”
