German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is pointing to the negotiations that led to Iran
curtailing its nuclear programme as a possible model for tackling the crisis
over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests.
Merkel
stressed in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
newspaper published on August 10 that a diplomatic solution is the only viable
way to resolve the crisis. She added, “If our participation in talks is wanted,
I will say yes immediately.”
As reported
by The Associated Press (AP), the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council and Germany conducted long-running talks with Iran that led to a 2015
deal for international sanctions to be lifted in exchange for Tehran curbing
its nuclear activities.
Merkel
said: “I could also imagine such a format to settle the North Korea conflict”.
In a
separate report, The Guardian noted that Merkel’s intervention reflects growing
alarm in Europe that US President Donald Trump is worsening one nuclear crisis
by repeated threats to use military force against North Korea, and seeking to
trigger a second one by torpedoing the Iran deal to which Germany, France and
the UK are among the signatories.
Meanwhile,
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, hosted an elaborate banquet in Pyongyang
over the weekend for military leaders, scientists and technicians to celebrate
the country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test. The regime says the
underground blast on September 3 was a two-stage thermonuclear device, or
hydrogen bomb.
The state
news agency, KCNA, published photographs on September 10 showing Kim beaming
with two of the scientific minds behind the country’s surprisingly fast
progress – Ri Hong Sop, the head of the country’s nuclear weapons institute,
and Hong Sung Mu, the deputy director of the ruling party’s munitions industry
department.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/germany-iran-talks-model-north-korean-crisis/