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Seoul Confident Pyongyang Will Accept Energy Deal
South Korea is confident that North Korea will accept its offer of 2 million kilowatts of electricity in exchange for Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear weapons program, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, July 12). “With the fourth round of six-way talks slated late this month, there will be an answer (from the North Koreans) in whatever form it is before the talks,” Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told SBS radio. “They may have other factors to consider, but they are expected to accept the offer in whatever form it is, given its constructive and positive effect,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 13). South Korea could install power lines and begin providing electricity to the North by 2008, said South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. The energy offer seemed to be aimed at replacing a suspended 1994 deal to build two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea under a Clinton administration disarmament plan, according to the New York Times. The Bush administration halted the project in 2002 after Pyongyang reportedly admitted possessing a nuclear weapons program (Joel Brinkley, New York Times, July 13). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today praised the energy aid proposal, the Associated Press reported. The proposal “gives an opportunity for the North Koreans to address questions of their energy needs,” said Rice. “It can be clear to anyone who looks at photographs of what North Korea looks like at night that they have energy needs,” Rice said, referring to satellite images that show the North in almost complete darkness due to electricity shortages, according to AP (Burt Herman, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 13). Parties to the multilateral negotiations with North Korea must form a united front if the upcoming talks are to have any chance of success, one expert told AFP. The countries — China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — have different concerns within the overarching issue of North Korea’s nuclear effort. The United States is firmly focused on nonproliferation, while China is worried about the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and Japan continues to press the issue of North Korean kidnappings of its people, analysts said. “Bringing the five allied countries — or at least the United States, Japan, and South Korea — together to a unified stance against North Korea’s nuclear programs is essential if the talks are to succeed,” said Balbina Hwang of the Heritage Foundation. “Without such coordination, the six-party process is unlikely to produce any concrete results because North Korea will continue to ‘divide and conquer,’” she said (P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse, July 13).
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