North Korea Must Provide Nuclear Report, U.S. Says

North Korea must provide a full declaration of its nuclear activities if it wants to be freed from U.S. trade sanctions and the list of state sponsors of terrorism, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said today (see GSN, March 7).

“When they’re ready to do so, we’ll be ready to deliver on our commitments,” he said during a speech in Seoul.

There is “a sense of impatience building up” in Washington over Pyongyang’s failure to provide the list required under a 2007 denuclearization agreement.  North Korea said it issued a declaration in November, but U.S. officials counter that the regime has failed to address suspected uranium enrichment efforts and other atomic activities (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press, March 10).

“They have not yet shown us even the elements of what will constitute a complete and correct declaration,” Vershbow added (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, March 10).

Meanwhile, the new South Korean government under President Lee Myung-bak appears set to designate a new top negotiator to the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Korea Herald reported that envoy Chun Young-woo was not expected to be present at the next negotiation session (Xinhua News Agency/People's Daily, March 10).

Elsewhere, North Korea recently said it sent engineers to work in Syria but denied that the personnel were involved in any nuclear efforts, Bloomberg reported.

The admission came during talks between U.S. and North Korean officials, Kyodo News reported.

Reports have indicated that the target of a September Israeli air strike in Syria was a nuclear reactor.  Israel and the United States have refused to verify those suspicions while Syria has denied that the demolished facility was nuclear in nature (see GSN, Feb. 22; Sungwoo Park, Bloomberg, March 8).

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