Nations Discuss North Korean Energy Aid

Representatives from the six-party nations met today in Beijing to discuss energy assistance that North Korea would receive for shuttering its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 11).

The talks were expected to focus on providing materials beyond fuel oil and on how the assistance would be divided between the five nations negotiating with Pyongyang — China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

A Japanese official said today that negotiators had not finalized any specific aid plans, Kyodo News reported.

“There was a certain level of progress, but we have not reached a point where the list is finalized,” the official said.  “That will be coordinated through diplomatic channels.”

Under a denuclearization agreement reached in February, North Korea would receive 1 million tons of oil and related energy assistance.  It has already received limited fuel shipments and is set this month to receive 5,000 tons of steel plating from South Korea.

Pyongyang wants no more than 450,000 tons of oil, AFP reported.  The rest of the assistance would come as aid in repairing decaying energy facilities (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Dec. 12).

North Korea is also pushing to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which would give it greater access to the international financial system.

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Monday submitted a resolution that sets a number of conditions for taking Pyongyang off the list, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The Bush administration should not change North Korea’s designation until it is verifiably found to have halted WMD proliferation and counterfeiting of U.S. currency, according to the resolution.  He also sought dismantlement of a North Korean party bureau suspected of drug trafficking, counterfeiting and other illicit activities.

“If the United States takes the step of removing North Korea from the terrorism list, let’s at least make clear the conditions for such a removal,” Brownback said in a prepared statement.  “I question the merits of the State Department’s decision to remove North Korea from its terrorism list.”

“It is important that the United States sends a loud and clear message to the North Korean regime that we will remain vigilant,” he added (Yonhap News Agency, Dec. 12).

A Russian official called on North Korea to provide the International Atomic Energy Agency with appropriate details of the nation’s nuclear program, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog monitored the shutdown of North Korea’s sole operating nuclear reactor.  Pyongyang has since moved to disable the reactor and two other plants at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

“Russia welcomes the disabling of three nuclear sites in North Korea.  We also welcome the progress made at the six-nation negotiations on the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula,” said Grigory Berdennikov, Russian envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The IAEA plays an important role in the Korean nuclear settlement,” he added, according to ITAR-Tass (Xinhua News Agency, Dec. 12).

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