North Korea Raises Stakes With Reactor Request

North Korea on Saturday restated its demand for nuclear power reactors as part of a bargain to shutter its nuclear weapons program, potentially complicating the six-party negotiations, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 20).

“In order to ultimately dismantle (the nuclear programs), light-water reactors should be given,” to Pyongyang, said chief North Korean chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan. 

The United States promised two light-water reactors to North Korea as part of a 1994 denuclearization deal that collapsed in 2002 amidst charges that Pyongyang was covertly enriching uranium.  Light-water reactors are good power producers but difficult to apply to military purposes, AP reported.

The latest round of six-party denuclearization talks ended Friday with mixed results.  The North halted work at its Yongbyon nuclear complex but no deadline was set for Pyongyang to permanently shut down its nuclear facilities and declare its nuclear weapons programs.

Envoys from China, Japan, Russia, the United States and North and South Korea are scheduled to reconvene in early September to discuss the next steps.

Kim praised the recent talks, but said the lack of a firm timeline resulted from time constraints at last week’s session, AP reported.

“In order to set a deadline, we have to clearly define the obligations of each side and sequence corresponding actions,” he said.  “Time was not enough and preparations were not enough this time” (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Globe and Mail, July 21).

Kim also hinted that North Korea might resist disclosing and discussing its existing nuclear weapons as part of the six-party talks, The Korea Herald reported today. 

“What do you think?” Kim said when asked whether the talks would cover Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.

“We are currently discussing the nuclear programs that exist now.  So in terms of specifics, we are (negotiating) a shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities, its disablement, and fundamentally, its dismantlement.  And for that we must have a light-water reactor,” he said. 

A reactor exchange could go far in building the trust necessary to uncloak the North’s weapons, Kim added according to the Herald.

“We’re going to have to wait and see until confidence is established,” Kim said (Lee Joo-hee, The Korea Herald, July 23).

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