U.S. Team Prepares to Enter North Korea

A team of experts from the United States today was preparing to join their Chinese and Russian counterparts on a five-day inspection of North Korean nuclear sites, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 7).

The U.S. officials arrived today in South Korea and are expected to cross into North Korea tomorrow.

“The purpose (of my visit to North Korea) is to survey the nuclear sites,” said delegation chief Sung Kim.  He was scheduled to meet today with deputy South Korean nuclear negotiator Ling Sung-nam.

Pyongyang appears to be trying to begin meeting its pledge to declare and disable its nuclear complex by allowing the inspection by the three nations, according to AP.

Inspections are expected to cover a 5-megawatt reactor, a nuclear fuel fabrication facility and a reprocessing site at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.  North Korea closed the site under international monitoring earlier this summer, the first step in meeting its commitments under a February denuclearization deal.

Talks between the nuclear experts and North Korean officials are expected to cover “the scope and technical feasibility of specific actions” of nuclear disablement, according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.  The United States has sought to have that occur this year (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 10).

South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator said today he would like to see the process finished next year, Bloomberg reported.

“The biggest challenge is to work out the elimination of fissile materials, including the existing plutonium, as well as the explosive devices,” said Chun Young-woo.  This should occur “before the end of 2008, hopefully by the summer of 2008.”

He also explained the reason why Japan and South Korea — the other two nations involved in the six-party talks — were not sending experts to North Korea this week.

“South Korean and Japanese experts do not need to be there because we wanted the experts from nuclear nations, who would know what they are looking at,” Chun said.  “We will hear from these experts after they return from their visit”

The next round of full negotiations is expected to be held this month (Heejin Koo, Bloomberg, Sept. 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.