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North Korea Repeats Offer of Nuclear Freeze for Economic Incentives
North Korea today said that it is willing to stop producing and testing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic concessions from the United States (see GSN, Dec. 30, 2003). While North Korea referred to the offer as “bold and magnanimous,” it is not significantly different from previous overtures. It comes, however, shortly after North Korea invited a delegation of U.S. nuclear and foreign policy experts to visit Pyongyang and possibly its nuclear facility at Yongbyon. The new efforts at outreach might signal increased desperation on the part of the North Korean leadership, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We are hoping we can do some good, but we don’t know yet,” said Siegfried Hecker, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a member of the delegation (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 6). North Korea’s recent offer is more specific than previous proposed nuclear freezes, the Associated Press reported. North Korean officials said they are “set to refrain from testing and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating (its) nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose.” “If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and continues to pressurize the D.P.R.K. to scrap its nuclear weapons program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in its policy toward the D.P.R.K., the basis of dialogue will be demolished and a shadow will be cast over the prospects of talks,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary (Associated Press/USA Today, Jan. 6). Washington, however, said that it will not offer concessions simply to reward North Korea for holding discussions. “We are continuing to state pretty categorically, that we’re not going to offer incentives for North Korea to return to the negotiating table,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. “We are prepared to resume talks without preconditions,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Juan 6).
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