IAEA Chief Heads to North Korea

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei was heading for North Korea today for talks on instituting the Feb. 13 nuclear disarmament agreement, Reuters reported (see GSN, March 9).

Among the first steps in the deal reached during the six-party talks is resuming IAEA monitoring of atomic facilities in the Stalinist state.  North Korea expelled agency officials in 2002 and then announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

ElBaradei was meeting with Chinese officials today in Beijing, and was expected in Pyongyang tomorrow.

“It is going to be a very incremental process,” he said.  “We need a lot of bridges to build, confidence to re-establish.”

“I hope we can agree with the D.P.R.K. to get our inspectors back in time to implement the agreement of the six-party talks,” which also calls for closing the Yongbyon nuclear reactor within 60 days, ElBaradei said.

ElBaradei could not say whether the agency and North Korea could reach agreement before the April deadline, Reuters reported.

“I’d like this trip at least to establish the framework and then gradually move forward,” he said.  “It is in their interest obviously to keep to that deadline, but we’ll see.”

He also hopes to discuss Pyongyang’s re-entry into the treaty (Reuters I/New York Times, March 12).

Chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan on Saturday advised the United States to lift economic sanctions, one of the components of the nuclear agreement, or face the consequences, the Associated Press reported.

“The U.S. has promised the North it would scrap financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia,” he said.  If that does not happen, Pyongyang “will be forced to take corresponding steps.”

He did not offer details of those steps, but one option would be to slow work on meeting Pyongyang’s obligations under the deal (Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, March 10).

North Korea also Saturday issued another warning against U.S.-South Korean war games, scheduled from March 25 to 31, Reuters reported.

“The projected saber-rattling is an uncouth act little short of leveling a gun at the dialogue partner,” a government spokesman said.  “The war moves will only becloud the prospect for the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and bring destruction” (Reuters II, March 10).

Pyongyang strongly wants normal diplomatic relations with the United States, according to academics who met with North Korean officials earlier this month in San Francisco.

“What they want is normalization with the United States and the possibility of a strategic relationship with the U.S.,” said Stanford University professor John Lewis.

Lewis and eight others met with the officials who were headed to New York for talks with U.S. diplomats.

The administration has seemingly become more flexible in its dealings with North Korea, years after President George W. Bush included the regime in the “axis of evil.”  The switch has not erased Pyongyang’s doubts, Lewis said.

“They are quite unsure, very unsure, if the shift in Washington is a policy shift or is strategic,” he said (Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, March 10).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.