Next Round of North Korea Nuclear Talks Expected Next Week

The next round of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program is expected to begin July 18, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, July 9).

A source said host country China has notified the other participating countries — Japan, Russia, the United States, and North and South Korea — of plans for two days of meetings that could stretch into a third day.

The session would apparently follow Pyongyang’s announcement that it had halted operations at its Yongbyon nuclear facility, which could come this week, Yonhap reported.

The shutdown would follow the arrival of a South Korean shipment of more than 6,000 tons of fuel oil.  It would be the first step toward meeting North Korea’s pledge in February to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy assistance and related aid (Yonhap News Agency, July 10).

There was no confirmation from China on the dates for the resumed negotiations, the Associated Press reported.

“We hope that we can hold the meeting of the heads of the delegations at the middle of this month but it still needs the consent of every party,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

However, an Interfax report indicated that China was looking to schedule the talks on July 18 and 19, and an anonymous South Korean Foreign Ministry official said that negotiators “are converging in that direction.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency would send inspectors to North Korea to monitor the shutdown process.  It received an official invitation today from Pyongyang, and said in a press release the team should leave in the next several days.

“This is the beginning of a process.  It’s going to be a long and complex process, but I welcome the return of the (North) to the verification process and I look forward to working with them as the verification process evolves,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday in Vienna (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Washington Post, July 10).

“Shutting down the facilities according to our experts will not take much time — probably a few days,” ElBaradei said.  “But then we have to have other equipment in place to ensure we are able to monitor the (shutdown), so these activities are going to happen in the next couple weeks” (Heinrich/Strohecker, Reuters/Washington Post, July 9).

The Bush administration wants to see talks resume only after the plutonium-producing reactor is closed, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I think ideally what everybody would like to see is an envoys’ level meeting build on some already increased momentum,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday.

Momentum would be produced by “a shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon (reactor), having the IAEA in there and full strength, performing their full mission that they have set out for,” he said.

It has been nearly five years since IAEA inspectors were ejected from North Korea, which has since tested a nuclear weapon and is believed to hold several more (Agence France-Presse/ChannelNewsAsia.com, July 10).

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