North Korea Threatens to Slow Denuclearization Process

North Korea is threatening to finish disabling a nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex only after it is taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, Kyodo News reported yesterday (see GSN, May 12).

Disablement of a plutonium-producing reactor and two associated plants is a component of the second phase of a 2007 agreement on dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program.

The agreement faltered this year amid U.S. claims that Pyongyang has been unwilling to address the full scope of its atomic activities, including uranium enrichment and nuclear proliferation. 

Under a recent deal, North Korea would reportedly “acknowledge” Washington’s concerns on those areas while providing details of its plutonium program.  U.S. officials left Pyongyang this weekend with boxes filled with documents on plutonium operations they hope will show how much of the weapon-usable material has been produced.

Under the agreement, North Korea would receive economic, security and diplomatic benefits for giving up its nuclear sector.

Nuclear disablement is intended to ensure that the facilities would remain off-line for an extended period even if Pyongyang wanted to resume operations.  The process has been completed at the nuclear fuel fabrication plant and a spent fuel reprocessing facility at Yongbyon.

The regime is already conducting reactor disablement at half-speed due to frustration over the pace at which it is receiving energy aid, Kyodo reported.  The latest warning suggests that Pyongyang might remove fuel rods from the reactor at an even slower pace, one source said.

Roughly 2,000 of 8,000 fuel rods had been removed from the reactor in mid-March, according to Army Gen. Burwell Bell, head of U.S. forces in South Korea.  He said at the time that work could be finished in August (Kyodo News, May 12).

U.S. officials expect to move on taking North Korea off the terrorism list only after reviewing the documents brought to Washington yesterday, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

“The U.S. will likely begin the process to take North Korea off the list of terrorism sponsoring states if the U.S. judges that the documents delivered are enough to verify North Korea’s (plutonium-based) nuclear activities,” according to one official in Seoul.  “It will take weeks for the U.S. to examine the documents.”

U.S. lawmakers, some of whom have expressed deep skepticism about any compromise to the requirement that North Korea fully disclose its nuclear activities, must sign off on taking the regime off the list (see GSN, May 1; Yonhap News Agency, May 13).

Sung Kim, Korean affairs chief at the State Department and leader of the team that made the most recent visit to Pyongyang, yesterday began briefing agency officials about the documents, Agence France-Presse reported.

“They’re going to get started working on these documents, seeing what they have, and leafing through and analyzing 18,000 pages worth of documents, which include records,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, May 12).

Meanwhile, top South Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Sook headed for Beijing today for talks with his Chinese counterpart on the atomic issue, AFP reported.  Seoul hopes to see the next full round of six-party talks — involving China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas — in May or June.

This week’s visit comes ahead of the scheduled trip to China at the end of this month by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.  Lee and Chinese President Hu Jintao are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, May 13).

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