N. Korea’s Kim Denies Nuclear Arms, Disavows War

NEW YORK —  North Korea’s Communist leader attempted Saturday to cool the controversy over his country’s alleged nuclear program, insisting that Pyongyang has no nuclear weapons, no intention of building any and no desire to destroy South Korea.

But Kim Il Sung refused to clarify why he has refused to allow full international inspections of his country’s nuclear facilities.

“I promise you we don’t have nuclear weapons,” Kim told Cable News Network in an interview marking his 82nd birthday, which was Friday. “We don’t have delivery systems. We don’t have the technology to build them.”

He added that he was frustrated by claims that North Korea is secretly making nuclear weapons, saying, “I’ve just about had it.”

CNN’s Beijing bureau chief, Mike Chinoy, quoted Kim as saying: “The world is now calling on our country to show the nuclear weapons we don’t have. What’s the use to have them? We cannot use nuclear weapons against our Korean nationals” in the rival south.

It was Kim’s first public statement on the nuclear dispute since it became a prolonged crisis.

The north’s refusal to allow full access to secret nuclear facilities prompted the U.N. Security Council to issue a statement March 31 urging Pyongyang to allow inspections.

Pyongyang has repeated threats of another war on the peninsula if the United Nations pushes too far in its demands for international inspections.

In the interview, Kim backed away from an earlier North Korean threat to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire,” saying the comment was “out of place”--an indication that the north wants to reduce tensions on the peninsula.

“We have done a lot of construction in our country, and we don’t want to destroy it. Those who want war are out of their minds,” he said.