NKorea nuke talks focus on verifying past activity
The Associated Press, Beijing | Tue, 12/09/2008 5:17 PM
China on Tuesday distributed a draft proposal on how to verify North Korea's account of its past atomic activities, the latest attempt to resolve a deadlock that has held up the implementation of a disarmament-for-aid accord reached last year.
Verification is the focus of the international talks, which opened Monday in Beijing with North Korea refusing to let outside inspectors take samples - a key method of ensuring that the communist regime is being truthful - from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.
China's draft agreement on verification was given to teams from the five other countries involved in the talks - Japan, North Korea, South Korea, the United States and Russia - according to a South Korean official involved in the talks. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions. The proposal was not released to the public.
The draft will serve as the basis for further negotiations with North Korea and could be adopted formally when the talks conclude, possibly Wednesday, he said. It is not clear how the Chinese document reconciles differences in the positions staked out by North Korea and the other parties.
The six-party talks have taken place in fits and starts since 2003. In 2006, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test. In 2007, Pyongyang agreed to a disarmament-for-aid pact, but the disarmament process stalled in August amid a standoff with the U.S. over verification.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said the parties had three goals for discussions: deciding on specific standards by which to check if North Korea has told the truth about its past nuclear activities, setting a schedule for delivery of remaining fuel oil aid to the impoverished country, and determining a timetable for disabling its nuclear facilities.
"Our plan is to get all three done," Hill told reporters.
Setting the standards for checking North Korea's accounting of its past nuclear activities likely will dominate discussions, South Korean envoy Kim Sook said Tuesday. Negotiators will hold "intensive consultations on the issue of verification," he said.
North Korea submitted an inventory of its past activities in June. U.S. officials said North Korea agreed previously to allow experts to take samples and conduct forensic tests at all of its declared nuclear facilities and undeclared sites.
But Pyongyang says it agreed only to let nuclear inspectors visit its main atomic complex, view related documents and interview scientists - and said it would not allow outside inspectors to take samples from the complex.
On Tuesday, Chinese envoys held bilateral meetings with Russia and North Korea and were expected to meet separately with South Korea, the U.S. and Japan before the full six-party talks resume later in the day, the South Korean official said.
Negotiators said they expected the process to be difficult.
"I cannot deny that there is a very large gap between the positions of North Korea and the other parties in the six-party talks regarding verification," Japanese nuclear negotiator Akitaka Saiki said.
However, all six reached consensus on shipping all the promised economic aid to North Kore - 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid in total - by the end of March, Kim said. About half of the aid has been delivered so far.
The aid has been a sticking point in the negotiations. Japan has refused to send its share, saying Pyongyang first must address the kidnappings of more than a dozen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s.
North Korea arrived at the talks vowing to ignore Japan. Its envoy, Kim Kye Gwan, said Monday that the parties should debate whether Japan is qualified to take part in the disarmament talks, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing an unnamed Japanese official.
In bilateral talks with South Korea, Pyongyang agreed to export its unused fuel rods to other countries. Asked whether South Korea will buy the fuel rods, Kim said no decision had been made yet.
Seoul has said in the past it would consider buying the North's fuel rods if they can be adapted to work in SoutKorea's power-generating nuclear reactors.
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