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US Says North Korea Disarmament Back On Track
Tokyo (AFP) June 20, 2007 The chief US negotiator on North Korea said Wednesday the nuclear disarmament process was back on track, with UN inspectors set to return after more than four years and talks likely to resume within weeks. North Korea had refused to implement a breakthrough February deal to shut its nuclear reactor due to a long-running feud over its assets frozen in the Chinese territory of Macau. With the funds finally returned, North Korea has invited inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, to the country to seal its Yongbyon reactor. Christopher Hill, the US point man on North Korea, said that the IAEA team was expected to return on Tuesday and that six-nation talks on the next stage of disarmament would probably resume shortly. "I would think it would be early July," Hill said of the talks. "We have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it." North Korea threw out IAEA inspectors in December 2002 amid an escalating crisis with the United States. The communist state tested an atom bomb last year. Amid the resolution of the banking row, North Korea on Tuesday tested its third short-range missile in a month, according to South Korea's military. But Hill said the test was routine and "not a political or diplomatic act." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon agreed in telephone talks that "the banking issue has been finally resolved, setting up the stage for the implementation of the February 13 agreement," the foreign ministry in Seoul said in a statement Wednesday. Song later said that South Korea was preparing the 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil which it would give to Pyongyang if it shuts down the nuclear facilities. China, the host of the six-party talks and North Korea's main ally, also welcomed Pyongyang's invitation to the IAEA inspectors, saying it showed a "political will" to implement the February agreement. North Korea, in the deal struck with the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea, promised to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, the source of raw material for bomb-making plutonium, in return for badly needed fuel oil. But it refused to comply with the April deadline until it received the frozen assets. In a complex deal, the United States said the cash finally returned Tuesday to North Korean hands via a bank in Russia. In the second phase of the February deal, the North is supposed to declare and permanently disable all its nuclear programmes. "It's going to be a very long process," Hill said. "We're going to have problems. We're going to have to get through the problems." He said he wanted the six-nation talks to take place after the first stage of shutting down the reactor was complete. "We have to somehow schedule (the talks) in a way that we will be talking about the next phase and not about the first phase," he said. Hill hoped the talks would pave the way for a six-way meeting of foreign ministers, possibly on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in the Philippines on August 2.
earlier related report "Internal preparations are underway to provide 50,000 tons of heavy oil similarly in time with the shutdown of North Korean nuclear facilities and the return of IAEA inspectors," Song told a weekly briefing. The North on Saturday invited an International Atomic Energy Agency team to discuss shutting down its reactor at Yongbyon. The team will visit next week. The shutdown will be rewarded by 50,000 tons of fuel oil under a six-nation February agreement also involving China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The shutdown is the first phase of the landmark deal under which North Korea agreed to disable all its nuclear programmes in return for a total of one million tons of oil or equivalent aid and diplomatic benefits. The reactor was the source of bomb-making plutonium for North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test last October. Implementation of the February pact was delayed due to a banking row involving 20-25 million dollars in North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank at US instigation. The money has now been returned to Pyongyang. Song said he expects a flurry of consultations among the six countries before the next round of formal six-party talks opens. US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said Wednesday he expects the IAEA officials will visit North Korea next Tuesday and the six-nation talks would probably resume in early July.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Nukes Too Valuable For North Korea To Relinquish
Seoul (AFP) June 20, 2007North Korea has invited UN inspectors to oversee the shutdown of its nuclear reactor, but analysts are sceptical about whether it will ever take the final step and give up its prized atomic arsenal. Without such weapons to pressure the international community, "North Korea would be just another dirt-poor, Third-World tyranny," analyst Andrei Lankov wrote earlier this year. |
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