Resolution Reported for North Korean Deadlock

North Korea and the United States appear to have found an answer to the issue that in recent months has dogged a 2007 denuclearization deal, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, April 3).

The second phase of the agreement calls for Pyongyang to fully declare its atomic activities as its moves toward shuttering its nuclear sector in exchange for economic, security and diplomatic benefits. 

However, Washington has said North Korea missed the Dec. 31 deadline to submit the declaration and did not want to address its suspected uranium enrichment effort and nuclear support for Syria (see GSN, April 1).

The compromise plan calls for Pyongyang to deliver a “confidential minute” addressing those issues, according to the South Korean Hankyoreh daily.  A separate document would cover North Korea’s known plutonium-based weapons program and planned nuclear dismantlement efforts.

Washington has agreed that the secret document would not be released to the public or used for political gain, the newspaper reported.

Top U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill and North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan are expected to meet nearly next week in a Southeast Asian city to discuss the matter, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

“If there is a meeting with them it will not be before I go to East Timor (on Sunday) … maybe after that visit we’ll see what the schedule is,” Hill, assistant secretary of state, said while visiting Indonesia.

Resolving the declaration deadlock could help reignite nuclear negotiations involving China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, April 4).

The envoys’ meeting appears set to occur Monday in Singapore, Reuters reported (Reuters/Yahoo!News, April 4).

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