North Korea Agrees to End Nuclear Program

North Korea has agreed to end its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy assistance, economic cooperation and security guarantees, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Sept. 16).

Pyongyang “committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date” to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, according to a joint statement released today by the parties in the six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.

According to the statement, North Korea’s negotiating partners recognized its right to a peaceful nuclear program and “agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of light-water reactor to the D.P.R.K.”   The five nations — China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — also “stated their willingness” to provide Pyongyang with energy assistance.

Pyongyang and Washington agreed to recognize each other’s sovereignty and pledged to work toward normalized relations, AP reported.  

“The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea) with nuclear or conventional weapons,” the statement says.

Japan and North Korea will also seek to normalize relations, according to the statement.

All six nations pledged bilateral and multilateral cooperation in energy, trade and investment in exchange for North Korean denuclearization.

U.S. President George W. Bush called the agreement “a step forward” in the negotiation process, but said North Korea must allow for verification of future actions taken under the pledge.

Pyongyang must “understand we're serious about this and that we expect there to be a verifiable process,” Bush said, according to Reuters.

“The question is, over time, will all parties adhere to the agreement?” he added (Adam Entous, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Sept. 19).

The top U.S. envoy to the talks in Beijing, which today reached their seventh day, urged Pyongyang to end operations at its Yongbyon nuclear facility.

“What is the purpose of operating it at this point?” said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. “The time to turn it off would be about now.”

Hill remained cautious on whether the agreement would resolve the standoff.

“We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead. We have to seize the momentum of this,” he said.

Talks are scheduled to resume in early November to begin discussing implementation of the agreement.

“Agreeing to a common document does not mean that the solution to our problems has been found,” said Japan’s chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae (Burt Herman, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Sept. 19).

This round of negotiations began Sept. 13. The Chinese delegation introduced a compromise proposal Friday, after North Korea continued to oppose a draft that did not include its demand for a light-water reactor for generating electricity, the Washington Post reported today.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing spoke by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last night, the official New China News Agency reported (Edward Cody, Washington Post, Sept. 19).

Hill said resolving the issue of civilian nuclear technology would take time.

“We’ll have discussions on the issue of peaceful [nuclear] energy, particularly the subject of provision of a light-water nuclear reactor, but only at an appropriate time,” he said.

“And that appropriate time is once the D.P.R.K. has gotten back to the NPT in good standing and gotten back into the NPT with IAEA safeguards,” he added.

Establishing a verification regime would be handled at the next round of negotiations, he said.

“I would say that the key element of the November discussions will be the verification regime and clearly this will involve international verification, the IAEA. We’ll have to do some early consultation to see how that will work,” said Hill (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Sept. 19).

IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei hailed the agreement.

“It constitutes a balanced package in my view that addresses both the security needs of North Korea as well as the concerns of the international community about North Korean nuclear activities,” he said today during the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting in Vienna.

ElBaradei said he would make contact with representatives of the six negotiating nations on having IAEA inspectors return to North Korea. “Clearly the earlier we go back the better,” he said (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 19).

In coming to agreement, the six nations avoided an escalation of the standoff in which Pyongyang might have been referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions — a move that North Korea has warned would be considered an act of war, Reuters reported.

“When you think what might have happened if the talks had fallen apart, they have avoided a very serious situation,” said Masao Okonogi, a Korea specialist at Tokyo’s Keio University.

However, the joint statement does not address the disagreement over whether energy aid and security guarantees would be granted to Pyongyang before or after it dismantles its nuclear programs.

“The agreement allows participants in the talks to interpret it as they like, yet no issue has been resolved,” said Lee Dong-bok, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The discussion on the light-water reactor issue has been simply delayed and we don’t know when that will be. The issue may emerge again when they begin discussing details,” Lee said (Brian Rhoads, Reuters, Sept. 19).

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