North Korea Pledges Continued Cooperation With IAEA

North Korea has pledged to take several steps to ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency can verify the closure of the nation’s nuclear facilities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 2).

Agency safeguards chief Olli Heinonen detailed the offer in a confidential four-page report, issued following his trip to Pyongyang last week. 

The agency’s governing board could approve the report within a week, opening the door for IAEA inspectors to begin monitoring the shuttering of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.

Among the steps Pyongyang has agreed to take, according to the IAEA report, are:  supplying the agency with a list of closed and sealed nuclear facilities, which could be updated as work progresses; giving inspectors “access to all facilities that have been shut down and/or sealed”; permitting “appropriate containment and surveillance” devices and other verification systems to be used at nuclear facilities; and ensuring that agency personnel have complete access to the North Korean nuclear program.

North Korea agreed in February to halt operations at the reactor as the first step toward ending its nuclear weapons program.  In return, it would receive economic aid and other benefits from the other nations participating in the six-party talks.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called for the negotiating countries to begin following through on their commitments, according to Chinese state media.  He met today with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, July 3).

Pyongyang is likely to shut down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor once it receive the first shipment of fuel oil pledged under the February deal, AP reported yesterday.

South Korea is expected to supply that shipment of 50,000 tons of oil in about two weeks.

“Pyongyang indicated its willingness to shut down the Yongbyon facilities upon the arrival of the first batch of heavy fuel oil,” an official in Seoul told AP (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, July 2).

There are no indications to date of preparations for closing Yongbyon, U.S. officials told Reuters.  One opponent to the deal in the Bush administration said that North Korea is “slow rolling us again.”  Another official was more optimistic, saying the Pyongyang simply wanted to make sure it would receive the fuel.

“We are down to a couple of weeks” to the reactor closing, said the official, who backed the agreement (Reuters/ABS-CBN, July 2).

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said today it is likely to take “a few more weeks” for six-party talks to resume, Agence France-Presse reported.

“It’s unlikely that the meeting will take place in early July,” he said.  “As the IAEA Board of Governors meeting starts on July 9 it will take a few more weeks to hold the (six-party) talks” (Agence France-Presse, July 3).

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.