Pritchard visited the North in late April and met Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun and other senior government officials to discuss the nuclear issue. Pritchard served as the point man on North Korea during both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
The North Koreans said they would be willing to begin discussions of nuclear arms reductions only after "full and final normalization" of relations with the United States, Pritchard said.
Once North Korea becomes a friend of the United States, it "won't matter” to Washington that Pyongyang has nuclear weapons, Pritchard quoted North Korean officials as having said.
"And besides, we only have few" nuclear weapons, the North Koreans said, meaning Washington shouldn't feel threatened by Pyongyang, Pritchard told a group of South Korean journalists.
"Unofficial nuclear power Israel is the closest friend of the United States. If the United States and North Korea normalize their relations, North Korea's nuclear programs will not be a big deal," Pritchard said, according to a report in the Donga Ilbo newspaper.
"The United States should be accustomed to North Korea with nuclear programs," he explained. In other words, get over it.
"North Korea believes that nuclear facilities in Yongbyon will be subject to the third stage of nuclear negotiations but nuclear weapons will not be subject to negotiations, which encourage North Korea to scrap its nuclear programs," Pritchard said.
Pritchard's remarks contradict an understanding the United States negotiated with North Korea.
U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill has said the case of India, which signed a nuclear pact despite possessing nuclear programs, would not apply to North Korea. Hill has reaffirmed that North Korea "can never become an India," suggesting Washington will not establish full diplomatic ties with Pyongyang as long as it maintains nuclear weapons.
Under the accord reached on Feb. 13, 2007 at the six-nation nuclear talks, North Korea agreed to disable its existing nuclear facilities in exchange for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.
Fulfilling its part of the accord, North Korea completed the first phase of the disarmament last July by shutting down and sealing its plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor.
The North is set to finish the second phase of the disarmament deal that called for a declaration of all its nuclear programs. The third and final phase is the dismantling of its nuclear programs.
The accord also called for the United States to remove North Korea from its list of terrorist-sponsoring countries and end restrictions against the communist country under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
