*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK (Part 2)

N. Korea to Allow Nuclear Inspectors Back into Yongbyon: Richardson

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Bill Richardson, governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico, made a six-day visit to North Korea last week to discuss with North Korean officials ways to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the North's nuclear weapons program. He had already said on Dec. 20 that the North was willing to bring back international inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities and negotiate the transfer of its fuel rods, which are used to extract weapons-grade plutonium.

   Gov. Richardson said North Korea has agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and negotiate the sale of 12,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.

   Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Richardson also said North Korea had agreed to set up a military commission consisting of representatives from the two Koreas and the U.S. and an inter-Korean military hotline to prevent conflicts in the disputed western sea border, the scene of several bloody skirmishes in recent years.

   North Korea expelled IAEA monitors early last year in the wake of U.N. Security Council sanctions for a rocket launch seen as a long-range missile test. Months later, Pyongyang detonated its second nuclear device after one in 2006, drawing harsher U.N. sanctions.

   Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said North Korea took a step in the right direction for the reopening of the multilateral nuclear dialogue.

   At the news conference in Beijing, Richardson said the latest moves by North Korea, including its lack of response to the South's live-fire exercise, open the door for multilateral talks with the isolated state.

   After making threats that it would retaliate, Pyongyang later backed down, saying it "did not feel any need" to react against "every despicable military provocation" by Seoul.

   Richardson spoke to reporters during a stopover at the Beijing airport before flying home.

   "They have shown, I believe, a step in the right direction," he said. "I think it is important that a new effort at re-engagement takes place among the six-party countries."

   Richardson had been in Pyongyang when Seoul pressed forward with the artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, the site of the North's deadly Nov. 23 shelling. He said the North showed a "certain pragmatism" by not retaliating as it had threatened it would.

   "The fact that they didn't retaliate, the fact that they agreed to IAEA monitoring, the fact that they are willing to sell the fuel rods that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons, the fact that they are willing to sell them to South Korea -- let's use that opportunity for all sides to start talking," the governor said.

   "I think it is important that a new effort at re-engagement takes place among the six-party countries," Richardson said. "Maybe now is the time for the six-party countries to reach out to North Korea and say, 'OK, let's get down to business.'"

   The governor's remarks came as regional players continue to consult over how to defuse tensions on the peninsula in the wake of the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four, including two civilians, and the North's disclosure of a modern uranium enrichment program.

   South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Dec. 21 that Richardson is "not in a position to discuss nuclear issues" with North Korea. "Gov. Richardson's trip to North Korea this time was a private one and it doesn't reflect an official position of the U.S. government," Kim said during the meeting of the National Assembly committee on foreign affairs. "I suspect North Korea may have tried to use Gov. Richardson's visit for regime propaganda."

   Richardson was in Pyongyang on a private mission upon the invitation of the North's top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan. During the trip, he was also told by top military brass that the North had recovered the remains of hundreds of fallen U.S. soldiers from the 1950-53 Korean War and was willing to repatriate them.

   The fuel rods at the North's nuclear facility are believed to contain enough material to build six to eight nuclear weapons. The North recently disclosed to an American scientist a modern enrichment program that could be upgraded to produce weapons-grade uranium, in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.

   Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have called on Pyongyang to take verifiable steps toward denuclearization before any resumption of multilateral talks.

   South Korean analysts said the proposal is nothing new, but signals that the North is trying to steer back toward putting the stalled six-party denuclearization talks back on track.

   A senior South Korean official dismissed the offer as an "old trick," but in Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a briefing that his government sees it as a "positive step," while warning Pyongyang to follow through.

   "There are other conditions for the six-party talks to resume," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said, referring to a set of actions the U.S. pressed the North to carry out.

   The actions, outlined by Crowley earlier this month, included a halt in provocative behavior, steps to return to the path of denuclearization agreed on in 2005 and a measure to reduce tension that was heightened after the Nov. 23 bombardment of Yeonpyeong.

   A senior official said that North Korea should first return to an international treaty on nuclear non-proliferation before accepting U.N. inspectors. The reported agreement with Richardson may be "an old trick," he said.

   The official called on North Korea to return to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the international regime from which it withdrew in 2003 amid international criticism about its nuclear programs. The North said then the move was "a legitimate self-defensive measure taken" against U.S. attempts to stifle North Korea.

   China, North Korea's last-remaining major ally, urged the North on Dec. 21 to accept international monitors, while recognizing Pyongyang's right to "peaceful use" of nuclear power.

   "North Korea has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but also at the same time must allow IAEA inspectors in," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.

   Jiang reiterated China's call for dialogue to ease tensions in the region. "All parties should realize that artillery fire and military force cannot solve the issues on the peninsula, and dialogue and cooperation are the only correct approaches," she said.

   The six-party nuclear talks, which also include Japan, Russia and host China, stalled in 2009 when the North walked away in response to U.N. sanctions imposed for its missile and nuclear tests. China and Russia, both parties to the forum, have called for a six-party meeting to address the tensions but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have balked, saying the North must take verifiable denuclearization steps first.

   In Washington on Dec. 21, the U.S. urged North Korea to stop provocations and take concrete steps toward denuclearization before the resumption of nuclear negotiations.

   "We're not going to get a table and a room and have six-party talks just for the feel-good notion of having six-party talks," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "When and if the North Koreans are ever serious about living up to their obligations, then we can think about restarting six-party talks."

   State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, meanwhile, called on North Korea to rejoin the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

   Pyongyang seceded from the pact in 2003 as Washington, citing the North's then-clandestine uranium project, suspended the construction of two light-water reactors being built under a 1994 bilateral deal.

  (END)