South Korean President Roh Moo-hyunsaid he is strongly convinced of North Korea’s intention tomake its nuclear weapons program be disabled,saying he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reached arigid understandingwhy the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is important.
In an interview with CNN held at his office in Seoul, Roh said he and North Korean leader Kim agreed on the need to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula during their summit talks in October.
The president said he believes that North Korea thinks it is more beneficial not to have nuclear weapons than to have them, and that if the circumstances were right and going well, they would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons.
"I have no doubt. I havebelieved for a long time that North Korea was willing todelete nuclear weapons, and that belief has not changed yet," Roh said in the interview.
"I think Kim Jong-Il and I reached a consensus on the need for the Korean peninsula to be denuclearized. I felt Kim Jong-il knows when to be assertive and when to back down. His way of thinkingis very flexible" said Roh.
Regarding the denuclearization process under the six-party talks, he said, "We should see a big picture," while stressing theimportance ofttrusting each other to try to solve the issue.
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