Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK released the following statement Wednesday on the DPRK's just nuclear activities for peaceful purposes:

The peaceful use of nuclear energy is the legitimate right of a sovereign state recognized by international law. It also serves as the only way for solving the acute electricity problem in the DPRK as it has vast nuclear energy resources.

The DPRK made up its mind to build its own light water reactor according to its economic development strategy given that there was no prospect for getting LWRs whose delivery was promised from outside.

The construction of experimental LWR and the low enriched uranium for the provision of raw materials are progressing apace in reliance on solid foundation of the self-supporting national economy and the country's latest science and technologies making leaping progress.

The DPRK announced at home and abroad the every phase of its nuclear activities for peaceful purposes geared to the production of electricity because it had nothing to afraid of nor hide. It also clarified its flexible stand that any concerns that may arise may be discussed at the six-party talks and it can convince the world of the peaceful nature of those activities through the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The U.S. and its allies, however, groundlessly took issue with the DPRK's just nuclear activities for peaceful purposes, deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations.

They slandered the DPRK's peaceful nuclear activities while spreading the false stories of "suspicious enrichment in the past" and "nuclear spread". They are even making far-fetched assertions that those activities are a "violation" of the September 19 joint statement and a "stumbling block" in the way of realizing denuclearization.

The guarantee of the DPRK's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy had been recognized as the prerequisite preconditions for denuclearization from the outset of the negotiations for settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. That's why the U.S. committed to providing LWRs to the DPRK in the first article of the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework. It was also for the same reason that the respect for the DPRK's right to the peaceful use of the nuclear energy and the provision of LWRs were stipulated in the first article of the September 19 joint statement adopted in the six-party talks.

Countries outside the NPT are conducting nuclear activities for peaceful purposes. This is a stark reality.

This being a hard fact, the hostile forces are charging that the DPRK's independent construction of LWR and the uranium enrichment are contrary to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. This is aimed to render illegitimate the DPRK's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and deter it from exercising the right.

The right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy is an issue vital for the sovereignty and development of the DPRK and, therefore, neither concession nor compromise should be allowed.

The present international situation proves that the unwarranted acts of taking issue with the legitimate right of sovereign states as well as tolerating their violation while reading other's face would entail catastrophic consequences.

The process for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing turns and twists. This is attributable to the U.S. which is preoccupied with encroaching upon the DPRK's sovereignty and deterring the DPRK from making peaceful development while defaulting on its commitments and duties.

The September 19 joint statement stipulates the U.S. commitments to fundamentally ending the nuclear threat and hostile relations and building lasting peace mechanism on the whole Korean Peninsula.

The prospect for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can open only when all the countries concerned honor their commitments in the joint statement on the principle of simultaneous actions.

The DPRK is ready to resume the six-party talks without preconditions and implement the joint statement in a phased manner on the principle of simultaneous actions.

Pressing unilateral demand on others while not doing what they should do can never be tolerated and the attempt to render the DPRK's peaceful nuclear activities illegal or delay them for an indefinite period will prompt resolute and decisive countermeasures.