§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the potential threat posed to international security by North Korea. [184023]
§ Mr. RammellWe believe that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been pursuing two separate programmes for the production of fissile material, through the enrichment of uranium and the processing of plutonium. We view this as a serious potential threat to international security. We also remain very concerned at the threat to international security posed by DPRK's willingness to transfer ballistic missile technology and systems to other states. We support the objective of the continuing six-party talks: a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons, and believe that the comprehensive, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes is necessary to assure this objective.