U.S. Notes Progress on North Korea

In the midst of a slowdown in the six-party process, a senior U.S. official said yesterday that “important progress” has been made in moving North Korea toward giving up its nuclear sector, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 4).

“While we have made important progress … much work remains ahead on the road to verifiable denuclearization of the D.P.R.K.,” Gregory Schulte, U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said during a meeting of the organization’s governing board in Vienna.

“We are still waiting for the D.P.R.K. to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs, which was due on Dec. 31, 2007,” he said.  “It is critical that the D.P.R.K. provide the declaration as soon as possible, and that the declaration be correct and complete and include all nuclear weapons, programs, materials and facilities.”

“The D.P.R.K. must also address concerns related to uranium enrichment programs and activities,” Schulte added.

North Korea agreed last year to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for energy assistance and diplomatic and security concessions from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Washington, though, said that Pyongyang has yet to provide a declaration accounting for the full scope of its nuclear work, including suspected assistance to other countries and uranium enrichment activities.  North Korea, meanwhile, has complained about the flow of rewards from the other nations and has slowed the pace at which it is disabling three key nuclear facilities (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, March 4).

The United States hopes to receive the nuclear declaration in “the not too distant future,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday.

“We intend to keep working this,” he said.

Regarding his reasoning for having hope during the standoff, Casey said “diplomats are always hopeful.  We’re paid to be hopeful” (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, March 5).

Pyongyang said today, though, that Washington had met “zero percent” of its obligations under the 2007 deal and is to blame for the current standoff in negotiations, AFP reported.

North Korea believes it has not received enough fuel oil or related energy aid during the denuclearization process.  It has also made the as-yet unmet demand to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“Reality is like this.  For what reason should we hurry up while the principle of action for action is not being kept?” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary (Agence France-Presse III/NASDAQ.com, March 5).

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