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NKorea nuke talks may be close to breakdown: SKorea
Seoul (AFP) Sept 26, 2008 International nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea may be near breakdown after the communist state announced moves to restart its atomic plants, South Korea's foreign minister warned Friday. Speaking to reporters, Yu Myung-Hwan said the North's tactics may be linked to the upcoming US presidential election. "We are at a difficult situation where we may be going back to square one," he admitted. Yu's comments came after North Korea earlier this week announced it would start work to resume plutonium reprocessing at its Yongbyon complex, possibly within a week. That appears to have brought a six-nation aid-for-disarmament agreement -- negotiated after the hardline Pyongyang regime tested a nuclear weapon for the first time two years ago -- close to collapse. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have been barred from the reprocessing plant, which produces the raw material for nuclear weapons. Yu said the North's move may be a strategy to capitalise on the political situation in the United States, where Republicans and Democrats are locked in campaigning for the Novembeer 4 presidential election. "It is possible that the North's decision to go back on the disablement steps is a strategy associated with the US presidential election," Yu added. He was speaking on his return from a US trip during which he met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Japan and Russia are also members of the six-party forum along with the two Koreas. Some analysts say the North may feel this is a good time to demand nuclear concessions, with a "lame-duck" president in Washington and the United States focused on the election and the financial turmoil in Wall Street. Yu said the North should realise "that it is impossible, as long as it tries to be a nuclear state, to get the help of international financial institutions and trade with other countries and get investment." Following the landmark agreement in February 2007, North Korea in July 2007 shut down Yongbyon under IAEA supervision. Four months later, it began disabling the complex, and in June this year it handed over details of its plutonium-based nuclear programme, thought to have produced enough material for about six bombs before the shutdown. In return, it was promised one million tonnes of fuel oil or the equivalent energy aid as well as diplomatic concessions, including its removal from a US terrorism blacklist which blocks some foreign aid. But Washington refuses to delist the North until it agrees procedures for strict verification of its nuclear disclosures, prompting Pyongyang to restart its plutonium programme. Yu acknowledged that the need for a verification protocol before delisting was not specified in written agreements. But he said "the US and North Korea had an understanding on this point." Washington said Thursday the verification conditions were not a burden and urged the North to pull back from relaunching its weapons programme. "What we're asking for is basically a standard verification package," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "It's not something onerous, it's not something that hasn't been done in the past. China's foreign ministry Thursday urged all parties to "display flexibility to solve the verification issue." Inter-Korean relations have been sour since a conservative government took over in Seoul in February and promised to take a firmer line with Pyongyang. The North has not asked the South for its customary annual food aid, even though it faces acute shortages this year. "We have often said that we are willing to provide humanitarian aid," Yu said, noting that North Korea refused an initial offer to send 50,000 tons of corn. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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US seems at a loss over NKorean nuclear defiance
New York (AFP) Sept 24, 2008The United States consulted Wednesday with its Asian and Russian negotiating partners even as it seemed at a loss over how to deal with North Korea's defiance of a landmark nuclear disarmament deal. |
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