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North Korea Reportedly Resuming Reactor Construction
Construction has resumed on two North Korean nuclear reactors suspended under the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today (see GSN, June 29). It would take several years to finish construction, according to Nihon Keizai. An official in Seoul familiar with North Korea intelligence, however, said there was no specific evidence work had resumed. “At this stage, there is no additional information to substantiate this report, which has been talked about before based on assumptions,” the South Korean official said (Reuters, June 30). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to ask Chinese officials next month in Beijing what additional punitive measures against North Korea they are willing to accept, Bush administration officials told the New York Times. China, however, is likely to urge the United States to offer more incentives to Pyongyang, according to the officials. Washington has said it is not willing to make any new offers. The disagreement could leave the nuclear standoff “unresolved for a long time,” one senior diplomat said. Meanwhile, a senior North Korean official is expected to meet today in New York with U.S., Japanese and South Korean representatives, the Times reported (Joel Brinkley, New York Times, June 30). North Korean Foreign Ministry Director General Ri Gun confirmed yesterday that he was in New York to discuss the nuclear standoff, likely on the sidelines of an international conference, the Associated Press reported. “I’m here for consultations on that,” said Ri, referring to the nuclear issue. “Our position is that we want justification” for returning to the six-party talks, he said. Joseph DeTrani, U.S. State Department special envoy for North Korea negotiations, and another State Department official, Jim Foster, are also expected to attend the conference, according to AP. Ri refused to say whether or not Pyongyang would return to talks in July. “We will be able to know after consultations” with the United States, he said. No meetings between the U.S. officials and Ri were scheduled outside of the conference, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “I would expect, since they will be at the conference, that they will be in the same room together,” he said. “But there are no planned meetings or exchanges” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 30). Multilateral nuclear talks are more likely to resume this summer if Washington tones down its rhetoric, analysts told Agence France-Presse. “If only they (the U.S.) would shut their mouths and stop the public insults of Kim Jong Il, then North Korea will come around,” said Paul Harris, a political scientist at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “When [U.S. President George W.] Bush called Kim Jong Il ‘Mr. Kim’ last month, it had an immediate impact in a favorable way,” Harris said (Robert Saiget, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 30).
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