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North Korea Seeks U.S. Envoy Visit; KEDO to Disband
North Korea today called on the United States to demonstrate its commitment to a joint statement reached at the last round of six-nation nuclear talks by sending the lead U.S. negotiator to Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 26). “If the U.S. has a true political intention to implement the joint statement, we kindly invite once again the head of the U.S. side’s delegation to the talks to visit Pyongyang and directly explain it to us,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement. In September, Pyongyang agreed in principle to end its nuclear weapons development in exchange for energy aid and security guarantees. Negotiations have been stalled since that point. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator on North Korea’s nuclear program, said he would “consult with our partners” on the invitation. “But we must emphasize that the problem we face is not for lack of meetings or travel, but rather due to the D.P.R.K.’s unwillingness to participate in the six-party talks and to fulfill their part of the bargain — denuclearization,” Hill told AP by e-mail. “The U.S. is committed to full implementation of the September agreement and we have said so on many occasions, including directly to the D.P.R.K.,” he said. Pyongyang, however, blamed the United States for stalling on negotiations. “The U.S. will never be able to find a way of solving the issue if it is so reluctant to sit with the party directly concerned with the issue, while expressing its intention to seek a negotiated settlement of such crucial issue as the nuclear issue,” the Foreign Ministry announced. “The U.S. has avoided contacts” with North Korea, although “the six parties agreed on re-energizing the bilateral and multilateral contacts among them to create an atmosphere favorable for” further arms talks, the spokesman said (Burt Herman, Associated Press I/Washington Post, June 1). KEDO FinishedMeanwhile, Japan, the European Union, South Korea and the United States yesterday formally ended a long-suspended project to build two light-water nuclear power reactors in North Korea, AP reported. The project was part of the 1994 Agreed Framework that temporarily resolved the North Korean nuclear crisis (Associated Press II/USA Today, May 31). The formal cancellation of the reactor construction contract means that the institution created to implement the project, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, will no longer have a mission and will disband, said KEDO spokesman David Wallace, who expected all the details of the closure to be wrapped up by the end of the year (Greg Webb, GSN, June 1). North Korea’s “continued and repeated failure” to cooperate with the international effort to resolve the nuclear standoff resulted in the death of the reactor project, the KEDO executive board said in a statement. The board met yesterday for the first time since November, when the Bush administration persuaded Seoul to join the other members in supporting ending the $4.6 billion project, according to AP. The board demanded that Pyongyang compensate the agency for the cost of the project. Seoul and Tokyo, its key financial backers, are expected keep some leftover components and equipment that were not sent to North Korea (Associated Press II/USA Today). Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe today said North Korea was solely to blame for the project’s demise, AP reported. “As North Korea violated the promise I think we can say that the project’s functions have already ceased,” he said. “I think we can say the significance of the project was already lost,” Abe said. “Since we all shared this view from before, and I don’t think the cancellation of the project will have any impact.” Abe also encouraged Pyongyang to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks, AP reported (Associated Press III, June 1).
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