Time Crucial in N. Korea Nuclear Standoff, U.S. Says

The next few weeks could show if North Korea is willing to provide a full accounting of its nuclear program, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said yesterday (see GSN, March 24).

Submission of a “complete and correct” declaration is one of Pyongyang’s obligations under a 2007 agreement under which it would receive economic, diplomatic and security benefits in exchange for ending its atomic activities, Reuters reported.

The regime said it delivered a list last year, but Washington counters that North Korea has yet to address issues such as suspected weapon-related uranium enrichment activities and nuclear exports to nations such as Syria.

While North Korean officials have repeatedly indicated their desire to see the agreement carried out prior to the end of the Bush administration in January, “the question is whether they are prepared to follow through,” said Hill, chief U.S. envoy to the six-party talks.

“I think the next couple weeks (are going to be) crucial in the process,” he said.

Hill highlighted the rewards that Pyongyang could receive by meeting the terms of the deal, including normalized diplomatic relations with Washington, access to international funds, and possibly the right to a civilian nuclear power program after it rejoined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (Arshad Mohammed, Reuters/Washington Post, March 25).

Hill said that U.S. and North Korean officials are continuing to discuss the issue through diplomatic channels involving the Stalinist state’s mission at the United Nations in New York, the Associated Press reported.

“Some of these discussions, some of the specific things that we’ve been talking about, I think, could lead to a resolution of this,” he said during a discussion at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

“In my view, and this is really a guess, that if the six-party talks fail, it will not be for a lack of a declaration.  We will get through this phase,” Hill said.

The “big challenge” would come in the following phase of the denuclearization agreement, which requires North Korea to end its nuclear programs and give up its atomic material, Hill said (Foster Klug, Associated Press I/Miami Herald, March 25).

“I think it is fair to say that there are people in North Korea who really are not with the program here, really [would] rather continue to be producing this plutonium for whatever reason,” he added.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that some North Korean military elements have opposed the denuclearization agreement, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, March 25).

Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said his meetings this week with U.S. officials in Washington would involve discussions of strategies for resuming the six-nation negotiations, AP reported.  Diplomats from China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas have not conducted full sessions this year amid the standoff over the nuclear declaration.

“I plan to have consultations on various ways to resume the six-way talks at an early date,” said Yu, who is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and national security adviser Stephen Hadley (Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, March 25).

The new government in Seoul today indicated that it would offer extended economic support and improved relations to its impoverished neighbor only when North Korea eliminates its nuclear programs, AFP reported.

“The speed and scope of, as well as ways to push for any development in, inter-Korean relations will be decided according to progress in the North Korean nuclear issue,” said Kim Ha-joong, unification minister in the government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who took office last month.

Kim suggested that Pyongyang should not be surprised if Seoul raises the nuclear issue in talks between the two nations (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, March 26).

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