US, Japan hold key to disarming: North Korea

By Staff
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Washington, July 16: North Korea cautioned after closing a nuclear reactor that produces weapons-grade plutonium that further disarmament progress would require the United States and Japan to end "hostile policies." The United States today called the closure a welcome step toward disarmament, but said it remained concerned that the secretive communist state may have a covert weapons programme and said further discussions would focus on the issue.

North Korea closed its Soviet-era Yongbyon reactor yesterday as part of a February 13 oil-for-disarmament deal, the North's official KCNA news agency said. The first shipment of 50,000 tonnes of heavy oil also arrived that day, the agency said. KCNA's report today confirmed a US account that it had been informed of the closure.

The closure was a sign of good faith toward the February agreement, which North Korea reached in six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, the news agency said.

''The full implementation of the February 13 agreement depends on how the other five participating countries of the six-party talks honour their commitments... and on what practical measures the US and Japan, in particular, will take to roll back their hostile policies,'' KCNA said, citing a government spokesman.

North Korea has complained over US financial sanctions and bristled at Japanese pressure for more information about abductions of its citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

In Washington, White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said it appeared Yongbyon had indeed been shut down.

International inspectors would work to verify the closure within days.

But in comments on the "Fox News Sunday" television programme, Hadley added that North Korea must give up its entire nuclear programme under a broader framework reached in 2005 that led to the February agreement.

Uranium Enrichment

He said North Korea may still be seeking to produce nuclear-weapons material by enriching uranium. "We have concerns that they may have a covert enrichment programme. That will be the next subject of discussions," he said.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.

The six-party talks are due to resume on Wednesday. The five parties have promised North Korea economic aid and better diplomatic ties for scrapping its nuclear-arms programme.

Hadley said talks would turn to fully dismantling the plutonium programme, getting "a full accounting" of any covert enrichment programme, and getting North Korea to turn over any nuclear-weapons materials.

Top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who was visiting Japan, said of the Yongbyon closure, "This is only a meaningful step insofar as it will be followed by other steps." South Korea's Foreign Ministry called Pyongyang's decision an encouraging step toward "denuclearisation." UN inspectors who will monitor the Yongbyon facility have been allowed to enter the country, KCNA said.

The team of 10 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency is the first to return after a 4 1/2-year absence.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said it would take about a month to set up monitoring equipment. "I am quite optimistic that this is a good step in the right direction," he said.

"How smoothly the rest of the operation will go very much depends on how progress will be made in the six-party talks," ElBaradei said. "It is going to be a long process." Hill said he expected North Korea to produce a list of all its nuclear facilities in the coming weeks or months.

In 2002, the United States accused North Korea of operating a covert uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear-freeze deal. In December 2002, the North expelled IAEA inspectors and said it would restart its reactor.

Reuters

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