North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament steps

[GeorgeSteele]

N.Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament steps

Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:54 AM ET


By Jack Kim and Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea agreed to take steps toward nuclear disarmament under a groundbreaking deal struck on Tuesday that will bring the impoverished communist state some $300 million worth of aid.

Under the agreement, which was reached by six countries in Beijing after nearly a week of talks, Pyongyang will freeze the reactor at the heart of its nuclear program and allow international inspections of the site.

The United States also agreed to resolve the issue of frozen North Korean bank accounts in Macau's Banco Delta Asia within 30 days, chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters.

Washington will also initiate, under a separate bilateral forum, a process to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, four months after the secretive state stunned its neighbors by testing a nuclear device.

"Obviously we have a long way to go but we are very pleased with this agreement. We feel it is a very solid step forward," Hill said.

Hill and North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan warmly shook hands and patted each on the arm during a closing reception hosted by China.

Pyongyang's KCNA said the other parties decided to offer economic and energy aid equivalent to one million tonnes of heavy oil in connection with North Korea's "temporary" suspension of the operation of its nuclear facilities.

Pyongyang remains on a U.S. list of states believed to sponsor terrorism, based on the confession of a North Korean agent about the mid-air explosion of a South Korean passenger jet over the sea off Myanmar in 1987.

U.S. trade sanctions, source of such anger in Pyongyang, will also begin to be lifted from a country once lumped together with Iran and Iraq by President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil".

The proposed plan hammered out by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia, and China will only be the first step in locating and dismantling North Korea's nuclear arms activities, leaving many crucial questions to future negotiations.

ENRICHED URANIUM PROGRAMME?

One area of uncertainty is whether North Korea has a highly enriched uranium program as alleged by the United States. North Korea has not acknowledged the existence of such a program.

"We have to get a mutually satisfactory outcome on this. We need to know precisely what is involved," Hill said.

Highly enriched uranium can be the fissile material for nuclear weapons and its production can be much harder to detect than plutonium refinement.

As details of the draft leaked out earlier, Japan was already voicing doubt that any agreement could be made to stick, and a prominent U.S. conservative labeled it a "very bad deal".

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Communist state should not be rewarded with "massive shipments of heavy fuel oil" for only partially dismantling its nuclear program.

"It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world," he told CNN.

Under the agreement, North Korea must take steps to shut down its main nuclear reactor within 60 days. In return, it will receive 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil or economic aid of equal value.

The North will receive another 950,000 tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent when it takes further steps to disable its nuclear capabilities, including providing a complete inventory of its plutonium -- the fuel used in Pyongyang's first nuclear test blast in October.

The 1 million tonnes of fuel would be worth around $300 million at current prices for heavy fuel oil, which is used in power stations, shipping and elsewhere.

POWER TO COME

The steps for now do not involve providing 2,000 megawatts of electricity that South Korea pledged in a September 2005 deal reached by the six countries. That is reserved for after the completion of denuclearization of North Korea.

The electricity, at an estimated cost of $8.55 billion over 10 years, would be about equal to North Korea's current output.

The Beijing talks had focused on how to begin implementing a September 2005 accord that offered Pyongyang aid and security assurances in return for dismantling its weapons capabilities.

The United States would contribute to the infusion of oil and aid for North Korea, meaning that President George W. Bush must win Congressional approval for the deal, the New York Times said.

The deal faces a tricky path to fruition amid profound distrust between North Korea and its would-be donors.

North Korea stepped down the path to nuclear disarmament before, in a 1994 agreement with the Clinton administration that also promised aid.

That agreement collapsed in 2002 after Washington accused North Korea of seeking to produce weapons-grade uranium and amid accusations of bad faith between Pyongyang and Washington.

The United States maintains some 30,000 troops on the Korean peninsula, which has remained in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War truce.

Japan will not join in giving aid to North Korea because of past abductions of its nationals by Pyongyang's agents, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo.

[GNRreunioneventually]

thank God i thought we were gonna have WW III



sneaky lil' bastards

(-.-)

sorry had to do that

[Izzy]

North Korea has no intention of disarming - this will be an attempt to buy them time to stick the stuff underground or move the materials elsewhere

[GNRreunioneventually]

North Korea has no intention of disarming - this will be an attempt to buy them time to stick the stuff underground or move the materials elsewhere

well that wouldn't surprise me

may i say once again they are sneaky lil' bastards (-.-)



i gotta a bad feeling about this 

war any one

[Izzy]

North Korea has no intention of disarming - this will be an attempt to buy them time to stick the stuff underground or move the materials elsewhere

well that wouldn't surprise me

may i say once again they are sneaky lil' bastards (-.-)



i gotta a bad feeling about this?

war any one

they are too smart for that...

instead they will use the nukes to legitimise themselves

'okay we'll not make anymore if u give us money and recognition and bascially support our vicious evil regime'

Up till now we've just ignored them - now we have to pay them to make them behave - its blackmail

[GNRreunioneventually]

North Korea has no intention of disarming - this will be an attempt to buy them time to stick the stuff underground or move the materials elsewhere

well that wouldn't surprise me

may i say once again they are sneaky lil' bastards (-.-)



i gotta a bad feeling about this?

war any one

they are too smart for that...

instead they will use the nukes to legitimise themselves

'okay we'll not make anymore if u give us money and recognition and bascially support our vicious evil regime'

Up till now we've just ignored them - now we have to pay them to make them behave - its blackmail

its Bull shit

why don't we shove a nike up their ass huh see how they like it, bastards.

assholes like that prevent world peace and should be shot because the people that do want world peace (hippies) come out and blame the US for it being prevented.

its confusing as shit man

[Communist China]

its Bull shit

why don't we shove a nike up their ass huh see how they like it, bastards.

They don't have Nike in North Korea.

This means nothing really but I'll take lieing over saying 'no, we wont' I guess.

[Krispy Kreme]

We'll see what happens. There  was  a "breakthrough" agreement in 2004 (I think) that fell through within days. The key is for the US to supply energy and a security guarantee. Without those two items NK is not going to disarm. Besides, the agreement is only to stop plutonium production at  one plant. The agreement says nothing about the second plant, nor does  it address nuclear weapons  in existence. So there is less there than the  press  has portrayed.

[freedom78]

While I certainly don't desire a nuclear NK, this stabilizes a nutjob regime that starves its own people and portrays itself in a God-like way.  You think the Berlin Wall coming down was somethin'...I can't imagine the disparity between North and South Korean lifestyles.

[Axl4Prez2004]

Did anybody see the Diane Sawyer visit to North Korea a few weeks back?  I wasn't expecting much, but I got sucked in because I thought it was damn good...very objective.

It's a very scary place.  It truly is an example of blissful ignorance...at least when it comes to the semi-privileged and privileged members of society.  Just how blissful the folks are out in the fields and poor villages, well, I guess that's another story.  It reminded me of some wacky religious cult with Kim Jong-Il and his dead father as the centerpieces.  If it ever re-airs, I highly recommend it.

Wait a minute...aren't we supposed to be bringing democracy to North Korea?  Let's get the troops in there pronto!!!