"There is no objective evidence" that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has a nuclear bomb, Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said Monday.
"We do react on Pyongyang's statements in this field. We should take measures anyway," Rumyantsev said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
"We do not always believe whether, for example, anyone threatens to set off a blast. But we should take measures whether we think of security," he said.
At the same time, he said Russia could hardly take responsibility for this as the United States does. "We have not had any relations with North Korea (DPRK) in the nuclear field for 10 years."
He noted that if this problem were discussed in the United Nations, Russia would do its best to make sure that the DPRK's nuclear program would be of peaceful nature.
(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2003)
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