North Korea Offers to Abandon Nuclear Weapons Program

North Korean diplomats said yesterday that Pyongyang is willing to abandon its nuclear weapons program, stop testing and exporting missiles, and allow annual inspections as part of a multilateral deal that would include the United States, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 13).

North Korean diplomats Kim Yong Ho and Kim Song Sol said that in exchange North Korea would require written security guarantees and compensation for the suspension of an internationally-backed nuclear power plant project. Pyongyang is also seeking an assurance that Washington will not hinder its economic growth, the envoys said.

U.S. President George W. Bush last month proposed an informal written pact that would offer North Korea a conditional nonaggression guarantee.

“If Mr. Bush’s proposal on written guarantees of security is based on the principle of simultaneous action which was proposed by the D.P.R.K., we can consider positively about that,” Kim Yong Ho said.

Six-nation talks on the nuclear crisis — involving North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia — are expected to resume next month. Pyongyang has “agreed in principle to the next round of talks,” according to the diplomats (John Zarocostas, Washington Times, Nov. 14).

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly is scheduled to meet senior South Korean officials next week to prepare for the talks (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 14).

On set of dates reportedly under consideration for resuming the six-nation talks, Dec. 10-13, would be “difficult” because it clashes with a conference in Tokyo, according to Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. A meeting of leaders from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is scheduled for Dec. 11 and 12, and Japan might not be able to address both meetings at once, Kawaguchi said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 14).

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