U.S., North Korean Nuclear Negotiators Meet

The lead negotiators from North Korea and the United States met today to discuss the next round of negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear program (see GSN, Jan. 12).

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan were seeking at their meeting in Berlin “to set the groundwork for the next round of six-party talks, to ensure those talks will be productive,” said State Department spokesman Tom Casey (Associated Press/New York Times, Jan. 16).

A North Korean official said recently that actions by the United States will determine whether Pyongyang carries out additional nuclear tests, Reuters reported Saturday Japanese lawmaker Taku Yamasaki visited Pyongyang last week.  He said he discussed the potential for a second nuclear test with Song Il Ho, the North Korean official leading normalization negotiations with Japan.

Yamasaki said Song told him, “It’s up to U.S. actions in the future,” Kyodo News reported.  It did not provide additional details (Reuters/Khaleej Times, Jan. 13).

China, Japan and South Korea on Sunday urged North Korea not to carry out additional nuclear tests, Agence France-Presse reported.  They also called for “concrete and effective steps” by Pyongyang to meet its September 2005 disarmament pledge, and backed complete implementation of U.N. sanctions approved following the North’s Oct. 9 nuclear blast.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Sunday also called on Pyongyang to “desist from conducting further nuclear tests,” rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and follow through on the 2005 agreement.

The international community “must convey in clear terms to the D.P.R.K. that the latter must denuclearize in a verifiable manner,” the association said (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Jan. 14).

Meanwhile, the international consortium that led the failed effort to build two nuclear power plants in North Korea is demanding $1.9 billion in restitution from Pyongyang, AFP reported.

The reactors were part of the 1994 deal under which North Korea was to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for economic support from the United States.  Work stopped after the United States in 2002 said Pyongyang had acknowledged operating a secret uranium enrichment program.

“Since May last year, [the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization] has sent five letters to North Korea, one following every meeting of its executive board of directors,” a South Korean official told AFP.

“This move is in line with KEDO’s position that North Korea is wholly to blame for the liquidation of the light-water reactor project,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Jan. 16).

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