Talks To Follow Up On N. Korean Reactor Shutdown

By Stephen Kaufman
USINFO Staff Writer

Talks Look To Follow Up on Shutdown of North Korean Reactor

Although the six countries involved in negotiations to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons programs did not agree on an overall time frame for the next phase during their recent meetings in Beijing, a senior U.S. diplomat says the parties are looking to get the phase completed by the end of 2007.

Ambassador Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters in Washington July 23 that the preceding week had been an important one for the Six-Party Talks involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

"[W]e had, I think, the first real development in terms of implementing the September [2005] agreement, which was, of course, the shutdown of the Yongbyon complex," Hill said, calling it "an initial step" that now needs to be followed by others in order to be "meaningful."

He said he had hoped the parties would agree on an overall time frame, but "it was not something we wanted to put in any press communiqué from the head of delegation meeting." (See related article.)

Working groups set up by the six parties under the February 13 agreement are next due to convene in August, followed by an additional envoy-level meeting expected in the beginning of September.

Hill said the working group on achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula will focus on North Korea's declaration of all of its nuclear materials and programs as called for under the February 13 agreement, as well as how to disable the Yongbyon facility.

"[T]he declaration needs to be all nuclear programs, which means that not only plutonium but uranium nuclear programs would have to be ... fully declared," he said.

The working group on energy will discuss the heavy fuel oil North Korea (DPRK) would receive under the agreement. Given North Korea's ability to absorb only 50,000 tons per month of the 950,000 tons of fuel promised under the agreement, the talks also would discuss mutually acceptable equivalents, such as increasing the country's fuel storage capacity, improving energy plants or providing additional electricity.

Along with talks on security and energy, the DPRK-Japan and DPRK-U.S. working groups will meet to discuss outstanding issues in North Korea's bilateral relations with both countries.

Hill said normalized relations between the United States and North Korea are dependent on Pyongyang's willingness to follow through on its stated commitment to abandon its nuclear programs.

"[We] will not have a normal relationship with a nuclear North Korea but ... if they fulfill their promise to give up these programs, ... a lot of things indeed become very possible," he said.

Talks already have begun on removing North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, and a process has begun to remove the country from provisions of the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act.

"And so we would be discussing those issues and how much further we can go with those issues in the current phase," Hill said.

The assistant secretary also said the United States is prepared to discuss the provision of a light-water nuclear reactor at "an appropriate time," saying that would be "when [the] DPRK gets out of this dirty nuclear business that they've been in and returns to the [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]."

Assuming completion of the second phase of the February 13 agreement by the end of 2007, Hill said the following year would address North Korea's possession of fissile material and explosive devices.

"[W]e would look at an overall package to secure that," he said.

ENDS

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