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North Korea Aims to Keep KEDO-Provided Technology
North Korea said today that it would not allow the United States to remove equipment or technology from two recently suspended nuclear power plant construction sites unless it receives compensation for the potentially defunct efforts (see GSN, Nov. 5). The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization yesterday agreed to suspend work on the two plants, and U.S. officials said the suspension would be permanent. The power plant project was part of a 1994 agreement to provide power to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in all other North Korean nuclear activity. A North Korean spokesman said his country would keep all tangible forms of the project. “We will never allow the transferring of equipment, facilities and technical documents out of the Kumho district unless compensations for the stopping of construction of light-water reactors are made,” a North Korean spokesman said (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 6). North Korea questioned the U.S. commitment to pursue multilateral talks in good faith, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. “This compels the D.P.R.K. to doubt whether the U.S. would come out to make a switchover in its policy toward the D.P.R.K. in case the six-way talks are resumed in the future,” the KCNA statement added (Reuters/CNN.com, Nov. 6). South Korea said the suspension of the nuclear power plant construction would not be permanent. “Our government’s position is based on the premise that if the project is halted temporarily, it can resume a year later,” said South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan. Conservative factions in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush have long hoped to end the power plant project, the Los Angeles Times reported. “They’ve finally driven the stake into Dracula’s chest,” said Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. “But for all the faults (of this project), it exemplified many positive things — namely, the ability of North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the United States to work together to solve North Korea’s energy crisis,” he added. The nuclear power plants could be replaced by conventional power facilities in a new deal, Gregg said (Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 6). Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with a senior U.S. State Department official during a visit to Washington today. Fresh off a visit to Pyongyang, Wang will brief James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, on meetings between high-level Chinese and North Korean officials (David Sands, Washington Times, Nov. 6). As part of its proposal to defuse the Korean nuclear standoff, meanwhile, the United States is proposing a treaty to officially end the 50-year-old Korean War, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. South Korea never signed the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953. The peace treaty would also be signed by North Korea, the United States, China and Japan (Shane Green, Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 6).
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