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NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO. 479 (December 20, 2007)
*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK
U.S. Presses North Korea on Declaration of Nuclear Programs by Dec. 31
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A critical moment is nearing as North Korea prepares to disclose all its nuclear programs by a year-end deadline under an international disarmament agreement. The U.S. in particular has been pressing for a complete and correct declaration, as reports indicated that the initial draft did not meet Washington's expectations.
U.S. President George W. Bush sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in early December in an effort to accelerate the next stage of North Korea's disarmament.
Top U.S. nuclear envoy and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill delivered the missive when he visited Pyongyang from Dec. 3-5 to remind the North Koreans that the disclosure has to be complete and correct. Bush had also written letters to the leaders of the other members of the six-party talks: South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
Bush's letter went out amid uncertainties about whether Pyongyang would make a full nuclear disclosure. The U.S. and others want answers on just how much plutonium and other weapons material North Korea has produced so far, and if it transferred any of the material or know-how to other countries.
"I got his attention with a letter, and he can get my attention by fully disclosing his program, including any plutonium he may have processed and converted into whatever he used it for," Bush said. "As well, he can get our attention by fully disclosing his proliferation activities."
Concerns about North Korea's proliferation took on new urgency in September when Israel raided a Syrian facility, claiming it was a nuclear site that North Korea had helped to equip. But no evidence has been provided to either prove or disprove the allegations.
In addition, Washington believes that Pyongyang is trying to hide a suspected uranium enrichment program that led to the outbreak of the ongoing nuclear crisis five years ago. The U.S. envoy said that the North had purchased equipment and materials that could be used in a uranium program.
The White House on Dec. 14 confirmed that it received a reply to President Bush's letter from North Korea through its mission to the United Nations in New York. "We received a verbal reply," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council.
Diplomatic sources only said that the response was brief, acknowledging the receipt of the letter and expressing appreciation. On U.S. calls for the North to implement its denuclearization commitment immediately, the message was basically, "You do your part, we will do our part," they said.
North Korea did not elaborate on the declaration or clarify its intentions on the denuclearization steps mentioned in the letter, according to sources contacted by Yonhap.
Responding to North Korea on Dec. 14, U.S. President George W. Bush again urged the communist nation to fully disclose its nuclear weapons programs, saying there is a "way forward" should the regime comply. "The important step is a full declaration of programs (and) materials that may have been developed to create weapons, as well as proliferation activities of the regime," he said at the White House.
In a series of six-party deals struck since September 2005, North Korea promised to eventually give up all of its nuclear weapons and programs. More recently, under a deal signed in October, North Korea agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and disclose all its nuclear programs by the end of the year.
The other governments would reciprocate with wide-ranging political and economic incentives, ultimately including diplomatic normalization and recognizing the reclusive regime as a member of the international community, thus opening up ways for the country to receive international aid. As an initial incentive for the North to denuclearize, the U.S. would remove the country from its list of terrorism-sponsoring states -- a designation that effectively prohibits any meaningful political or economic exchanges with the North. In addition, the North would be entitled to a total of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent. The Bush administration has requested $106 million from Congress to participate in the heavy fuel oil delivery.
A U.S. senator on Dec. 12 said that she and her colleagues would support U.S. funding for North Korea's denuclearization. "Things can change at any point, but we want to be very supportive," Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, told reporters. She also said she "came away with a sense" that the alleged North Korean nuclear cooperation with Syria, if it ever took place, was in the past and "not occurring now."
The U.S. has said it will foot the initial cost of North Korea's nuclear disablement, as well as provide economic assistance as denuclearization progresses. Once in the final dismantlement phase, the U.S. is considering applying the Nunn-Lugar formula to North Korea, which was applied to the former Soviet Union. The former Soviet Union also required massive international funding to disassemble and discard its atomic weapons and retrain and employ nuclear scientists.
China's top nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, travelled to Pyongyang this week, also with the same message requesting the North to make a complete declaration. He reportedly inspected nuclear facilities at Yongbyon to see how the North's denuclearization process was going on.
So far, North Korea has not yet taken any concrete action to comply with the demands of the U.S. or the other countries of the six-party talks that have committed to supporting Pyongyang if it sincerely fulfills its promised declaration of its nuclear activities.
(END)
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