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North Korea: Signs Quality Protocol With KEDO North Korea signed an agreement yesterday with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization to stipulate the rights and responsibilities of each regarding quality assurance of two light-water nuclear reactors KEDO is building in North Korea. The agreement also includes warranties covering energy output, essential parts and initial fuel supply (Korea Herald, Dec. 4). The Quality Assurance and Warranties Protocol stipulates procedures to verify that the reactors will each produce 1,000 megawatts and comply with International Atomic Energy Agency, South Korean and U.S. reactor standards, according to Kenji Nakano of KEDO. The agreement does not include provisions related to IAEA inspections of the two reactors, Nakano said, adding the document is “pretty typical” of North Korea-KEDO agreements (Kerry Boyd, GSN, Dec. 4). KEDO Executive Director Charles Kartman and Kim Hui-mun, the North Korean official in charge of the reactor project, signed the agreement, which was the eighth protocol signed between the two parties and had been under negotiation since 1997 (Korea Herald, Dec. 4). Kartman arrived in North Korea Saturday (see GSN, Dec. 3) and traveled today to South Korea to meet officials there and discuss the North Korea talks (Korea Herald, Dec. 5). KEDO—a consortium including the United States, Japan, South Korea and several other countries—was founded after the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework for cooperation in 1994. North Korea consented to freeze its nuclear programs in exchange for a U.S. agreement to build two light-water nuclear reactors in there (KEDO release). The light-water reactors are to replace North Korea’s Soviet-designed reactors that produce higher amounts of weapons-grade plutonium, according to the Associated Press. Although KEDO has made some progress (see GSN, Nov. 9), funding problems and tension on the Korean peninsula have caused construction delays. Officials expect to complete the reactors several years after the 2003 target. North Korea has threatened to scrap the 1994 agreement unless KEDO compensates for construction delays, which the consortium has refused (Jae-Suk Yoo, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Dec. 3). The two sides have several protocols remaining to discuss in the future, including agreements related to nuclear liability, delivery schedule and North Korean repayment, Nakano said (Boyd, GSN).
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