North Korea Talks Deadlocked On Light Water Reactor

NUKEWARS

Negotiators for the six-party nuclear talks (L-R) Alexander Alexeyev, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Kenichiro Sasae, Director General of Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Wu Dawei, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Christopher Hill, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister and Song Min-soon, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister, join hands before the start of a banquet meeting in Beijing 13 September 2005. Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes reconvene in Beijing after a five-week recess, with North Korea vowing 13 September to keep pushing for the right to peaceful atomic energy, putting it on a collision course with the United States as six-way talks on its nuclear weapons drive resumed. AFP photo /pool/Claro Cortes IV.

by Edward Lanfranco
Beijing (UPI) Sep 15, 2005
The first full day of six party talks ended Wednesday with North Korea insisting on its right to nuclear energy and renewed demands for a light water reactor.

Early Wednesday state-run Chinese media gave its interpretation of the main participants' positions in the talks which resumed Tuesday after a break of nearly five weeks.

The China Daily said "the Democratic People's Republic of Korea regards peaceful nuclear activities as one of its rights, and a key sector for its economic development. The U.S. should reverse its insistence the DPRK give up all nuclear activities. The DPRK will never waive its right to conduct peaceful nuclear activities."

The newspaper said the United States "rejects Pyongyang's insistence it can use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The DPRK must dismantle its nuclear weapons in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."

It added that "Pyongyang's demand for a civilian reactor is not considered a major stumbling block" however this statement proved not to be the case after the first day of negotiations.

Top U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters late Wednesday that the day consisted of bilateral meetings with all the other delegations. He said the encounter with North Korea was lengthy, but one in which "we did not make a lot of progress."

"The DPRK is quite insistent that they want to include in the agreement a light water reactor," Hill said. "It's very clear that they wanted to spend today as a sort of "light water reactor day" I hope this does not become light water reactor week because there are not too many other ways I know how to say no," he added.

The envoy noted the American position was based on a draft that the Chinese delegation had circulated a few days before the talks closed for recess in early August. "The fourth draft does not discuss a light water reactor, so I spent a considerable amount of time explaining to the DPRK delegation that the U.S., nor any other participant in the six party process, is prepared to fund a light water reactor."

Hill reiterated the proposals in the Chinese document: a conventional energy proposal, security guarantees, economic assistance, and recognition ideas for the establishment of relations. The envoy said he tried to make clear to his North Korean interlocutors "this is a pretty comprehensive approach...I think it would be in the DPRK's interest to study (the draft) hard and get a yes on it."

"I have made it very clear, and I think the other delegates made it clear, that nobody is prepared to fund a light water reactor and they should rather focus on the elements that are on the table and understand that those elements would be very beneficial," Hill said.

The six party talks are a diplomatic initiative sponsored and hosted by China involving the U.S., the two Koreas, Japan and Russia. Negotiations began in August 2003 with the aim of diffusing tensions arising out of North Korea's development of nuclear weapon programs. Four previous rounds of discussions have failed to come up with a joint statement of principles on how to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

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NUKEWARS

Musharraf: Khan Supplied "Probably A Dozen" Centrifuges To Pyongyang

New York (AFP) Sep 13, 2005
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published Tuesday that a Pakistani nuclear expert who ran a key proliferation ring exported "probably a dozen" centrifuges to North Korea to produce nuclear weapons fuel.

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