North Korea Could Receive Security Guarantee

North Korea could receive a written security guarantee from the United States in exchange for its pledge at negotiations next week to make tangible moves on eliminating its nuclear weapons program, the Yonhap News Agency reported today (see GSN, Dec. 13).

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Washington’s lead negotiator with Pyongyang, made the offer last month during a meeting with North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan, sources said.

“Such written security guarantees are seen as a prelude to the normalization of diplomatic ties between North Korea and the U.S.,” a source said (Yonhap News Agency I/BBC Monitoring, Dec. 14).

Hill said yesterday that Pyongyang has indicated its willingness to consider real action on disarmament during the upcoming talks, Reuters reported.

“We need concrete progress,” he said.

During his meeting in November, “there were indications that the … North Koreans would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round,” Hill said.

“The Chinese have also been in direct contact with the North Koreans on several occasions and they also have reason to believe that we will see some specific ideas for moving ahead,” he added.

Hill declined to say what specific actions Washington expects of Pyongyang, Reuters reported (Mohammed/Pleming, Reuters/Washington Post, Dec. 13).

Proposals floated at the November meeting included halting work at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, allowing international nuclear inspectors back into the country, and shuttering North Korea’s nuclear testing site, Asian diplomats and U.S. officials told the Washington Post.

“They understand that that was suggested, and we have to see some early results,” a senior Bush administration official said.

There is significant skepticism among U.S. officials and analysts that Pyongyang is ready to undo its nuclear weapons effort.  However, China’s clear displeasure with North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test could be an important new factor in the negotiations, according to some officials.  Beijing is the country’s last major supporter (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Dec. 14).

There is no set date for the next round of six-party talks in Beijing to end, the Associated Press reported today.  Negotiations could include bilateral and multilateral meetings, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

“As long as we have the will and desire, there can be contact and exchanges in all forms,” he said (Alexa Olesen, Associated Press I/B92-News, Dec. 14).

Meanwhile, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is scheduled to meet Friday with two senior North Korean officials in New Mexico to discuss the six-party talks.  The former U.N. ambassador to the United Nations has made five trips to North Korea.

“I believe that we have an opportunity to use diplomacy to end this crisis and bring stability to the Korean Peninsula,” Richardson said.  “I will press the North Koreans to start dismantling their nuclear weapons” (Associated Press II/CNN.com, Dec. 14).

North Korea could have 50 nuclear weapons by 2010, a former South Korean general said yesterday, according to Yonhap.

Jang Joon-ik also said that Pyongyang is likely to have 55 kilograms of weapon-grad plutonium by the end of 2006, enough for 11 20-kiloton weapons (Yonhap News Agency II, Dec. 14).

Elsewhere, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization has agreed to liquidate a $1.65 billion project that was intended to end North Korea’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported today.

The United States in 1994 agreed to give North Korea two light-water nuclear reactors and other economic incentives in exchange for the Stalinist state’s denuclearization.  Washington halted the initiative in 2002, stating that Pyongyang had acknowledged operating a secret uranium enrichment effort (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 14).

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