AFP
Thursday, February 1, 2007
North Korea could agree to implement a "first tranche"
of measures to end its nuclear weapons program during the upcoming
round of six-nation talks in Beijing next week, the top US negotiator
said Thursday.
"What we hope to do in this round is to implement a first
tranche of measures, which will be the beginning of the full implementation
of the September (2005) agreement leading to full denuclearization
of the Korean peninsula," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher
Hill told reporters.
He said that the move "will be a substantial start"
to making the Korean peninsula nuclear weapons free and added
that "there is a basis for making progress" at the talks
in the Chinese capital beginning February 8.
Hill declined to elaborate on the measures but some experts familiar
with the talks said the steps could be linked to a freeze by Pyongyang
on its nuclear activities at the key Yongbyon reactor in return
for some benefits.
The Yongbyon complex produces spent fuel that can be "reprocessed"
to yield plutonium for a nuclear weapon.
The step-by-step process for North Korea to abandon its atomic
weapons program is seen as a rollback by the administration of
President George W. Bush's demand for a "complete, verifiable,
and irreversible" dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal
when multilateral talks were launched in 2003.
Apparently referring to Pyongyang's breach of an earlier agreement
to freeze in nuclear activities, Hill said North Korea had been
told explicitly that it could not shed its nuclear pariah status
unless it completely disbanded its atomic weapons network.
"We have made it clear to the North Koreans that they should
not be in this for the first tranche because we have a situation
where a country has produced plutonium -- depending on who you
believe -- for nuclear weapons.
"Clear denuclearization is not achieved unless North Korea
can get back into the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear
state and they are not going to be able do that until they give
up these nuclear weapons and nuclear programs," he explained.
"I think they understand that they have to move beyond the
first tranche."
Under the September 2005 deal, reached through an earlier series
of talks among the United States, North Korea, China, Russia,
Japan and South Korea, Pyongyang agreed to give up its atomic
weapons program in exchange for security guarantees, economic
aid and improved relations with Washington.
But North Korea walked away from the agreement a month later
in protest at the imposition of US financial sanctions against
a Macau bank accused of money-laundering for the regime in Pyongyang.
As part of the deal that enticed North Korea back to negotiations
last month, Washington agreed to discuss the sanctions imposed
on Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in parallel with the resumed denuclearization
talks.
The last round of six-party negotiations in December ended in
stalemate after North Korea, emboldened by its first-ever test
of an atomic bomb in October last year, insisted that the US sanctions
and broader UN measures imposed against the North be lifted.
The two sides held two days of "very productive" discussions
in Beijing this week on the financial sanctions, US negotiator
Daniel Glaser told reporters in the Chinese capital Thursday.
Asian diplomats said the United States was pushing North Korea
to pledge in a written statement it would take immediate action
towards denuclearization at the Beijing talks next week.
Aside from Yongbyon, Pyongyang is reportedly building a large
reactor in Taechon capable of making about 10 nuclear bombs a
year.
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