A high-level meeting Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 between the Korean Energy Development Organization and North Korea in Hyangsan, north of Pyongyang, made “progress on a number of issues,” according to Marc Vogelaar, KEDO’s director of public and external promotion.  The KEDO delegation, including U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials, discussed the construction of two nuclear light-water reactors in North Korea and the delivery of heavy fuel oil.

“This was a very useful round” which was conducted in a “good spirit of cooperation,” Vogelaar said.

The officials discussed the establishment of an independent satellite communications network to allow KEDO workers to communicate with KEDO outside North Korea.  The delegations also worked to designate an efficient air transportation route directly between North Korea and South Korea, which currently does not exist.  An air route would save time and money compared to using a ship, as currently required, Vogelaar said, adding that North Korea and KEDO have already agreed to a transportation protocol and so focused on the practical arrangements for an air route. 

Programs to train future North Korean nuclear plant operators was another important issue on the table at the meeting following the agreement to a training protocol a year ago, Vogelaar said.  KEDO plans to familiarize the North Koreans who would eventually be responsible for the operation of the nuclear plant in technical operation and nuclear safety, he said, adding, “We cannot hand over plants without operational safety.”  Training takes time, so KEDO plans to begin programs soon.

Officials also discussed the number of foreign workers that will be allowed into North Korea for ongoing construction of the plant, Vogelaar said.  KEDO plans to begin pouring concrete at the site next August and will require a large increase in the number of workers.  Most of the workers currently at the site and planned in the future are South Korean and Uzbek, although a minority of the workers are also North Korean (Kerry Boyd, GSN, Nov. 9). 

KEDO, a multinational partnership that is building the reactors in exchange for a freeze of North Korea’s nuclear program, has begun construction in South Hamgyong Province on North Korea’s east coast, said Vogelaar, on Oct. 19 in Washington.  Excavation of the bedrock where the reactors will stand began in September, and KEDO plans to begin pouring concrete next August, he said.  The organization also plans to start shipping components to its own harbor next spring (see GSN, Nov. 2), he said.  KEDO will start training North Korean operators in a few months and plans to conclude a nuclear liability agreement soon, Vogelaar said.

How long it will take KEDO to construct the reactors depends on how well the United States and North Korea fulfill their commitments, Vogelaar said. The two countries established an Agreed Framework in 1994, leading to KEDO’s creation.  The organization could not have moved any faster on the project to provide North Korea with nuclear energy, he said, adding, “Constructing a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project in a remote part of a remote country is no sinecure.”

KEDO’s work is very important to improving relations between North Korea and other countries, Vogelaar said, especially since no one has proof that North Korea has not developed a nuclear weapons program since it signed the Agreed Framework.  “Our project is one that leads to establishing truth.  It will oblige the DPRK to let the [International Atomic Energy Agency] reconstruct the history of the [nuclear] installations at Yongbyon and of the plutonium produced there prior to the freeze, lest they loose a $4.6 billion foreign investment,” he said, noting that North Korean failure to comply with IAEA safeguards would immediately stop KEDO’s project.

KEDO’s future depends on relations between North Korea and the rest of the world, Vogelaar said.  Under current arrangements, KEDO’s mandate would cease to exist once it completed the two reactors, he said, but he added that KEDO could have potential future uses.  “If the North-South dialogue were to lead to peace and ultimately to unification, there might well be a need for an international (or inter-Korean) organization to coordinate economic cooperation on the Korean Peninsula.  Given its experience, KEDO might well qualify to evolve into such an organization sometime in the future.  But that is a big if,” he said.

“Someone had to build a bridge with North Korea, even without knowing if it would ever be used.  That bridge is KEDO,” Vogelaar said (KEDO release, Oct. 19).

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