North Korea Urged to Disable Three Nuclear Sites

The United States pushed last week to have North Korea disable three facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported today (see GSN, Aug. 23).

A high-level U.S. official said the request came during working-level talks held in China.

Nations participating in the six-party talks are pressing Pyongyang to begin the second stage of denuclearization as laid out in a February agreement.  North Korea in that stage would fully declare and disable its nuclear program.

The U.S. delegation said last week that the processes should occur concurrently, the official said.

Washington wants Pyongyang to first disable a plutonium-producing graphite reactor, a nuclear fuel rod reprocessing plant, and a nuclear fuel processing facility, the Yomiuri reported.  That could be accomplished in a matter of months, the official said.  Two additional Yongbyon facilities would be addressed afterward.

There was no decision from the North Korean delegation on the U.S. request (Takashi Sakamoto, Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 24).

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