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North Korean Nuclear Projects Will Be Suspended, Probably Killed
The internationally supported construction of two nuclear power reactors in North Korea will soon be suspended and is unlikely to be resumed, U.S. and Asian officials said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3). The reactors were the centerpiece of a 1994 U.S.-North Korean agreement in which Pyongyang agreed to abandon all other nuclear activities in exchange for receiving the nuclear power station. Beginning about a year ago, however, reports emerged of renewed North Korean nuclear activity, Pyongyang announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and North Korean officials declared their nation was nuclear armed. Partners to the agreement’s implementation institution, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, met in New York yesterday and today and were expected to suspend construction for one year, the Washington Post reported. A formal decision is expected later this year, according to the Post. To lift the suspension, however would require a unanimous vote from KEDO’s board — consisting of the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United States — and U.S. officials said Washington would not allow the project to resume. “This ought to kill it,” said Henry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. “The heart may still be beating but there is no brain function,” he added (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Nov. 4). The U.S. ambassador to Seoul, meanwhile, told South Korean lawmakers that Washington is still prepared to offer North Korea a nonaggression pact. “Washington will guarantee North Korea’s safety if Pyongyang publicize[s] clearly its intention of discarding nuclear ambitions through a written security proposal in the frame of the six-party talks,” Thomas Hubbard said. The ambassador also said that he sees apparent anti-U.S. sentiment in South Korea as opposition to the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush. “Even in the United States, 45 to 50 [percent] of the people are against the policies of the Bush government,” he added (Joo Sang-min, Korea Herald, Nov. 4). The top-ranking North Korean defector yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wants to rule over a united Korea. Kim’s “priority in life is to become the supreme ruler of the unified Chosun, or, as you call it, Korea,” said Hwang Jang Yop. “Before Kim Jong Il came to power, there was his father, Kim Il Sung. No one starved to death under Kim Il Sung. However, after Kim Jong Il came to power, millions of people starved to death. The economy has been destroyed, and the whole government and the country became one big prison. As a politician, he is a failure,” Hwang added (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Nov. 4).
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