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 News from Around the Americas | February 2007 
North Korea Agrees to Nuclear Disarmament
 Bert Herman - Associated Press
| | A general view of the closing ceremony of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program in Beijing. The White House has hailed a North Korean agreement to close down key nuclear facilities as a "very important first step towards the denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula. (AFP/Michael Reynolds) |
North Korea agreed Tuesday to shut down its main nuclear reactor within 60 days at talks with the U.S. and four regional powers and eventually dismantle its atomic weapons program.
Under the deal, the North will receive an initial 50,000 tons worth of aid in heavy fuel oil for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor, to be confirmed by international inspectors, Chinese envoy Wu Dawei said. The North eventually will receive another 950,000 tons in aid for irreversibly disabling the reactor.
The agreement was read to all delegates in a conference room at a Chinese state guesthouse and Wu asked if there were any objections. When none were made, the officials all stood and applauded.
North Korea and United States also will embark on talks aimed at resolving disputes and restarting diplomatic relations, Wu said. The Korean peninsula has technically remained in a state of war for more than a half-century since the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire.
The United States will begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade sanctions, but no deadlines was set, according to the agreement. Japan and North Korea also will seek to normalize relations, Wu said.
If Pyongyang follows through with its promises, they would be the first moves the communist nation has made to scale back its atomic development after more than three years of six-nation negotiations marked by delays, deadlock and the North's first nuclear test explosion in October.
Making sure that Pyongyang declares all its nuclear facilities and shuts them down is likely to prove arduous, nuclear experts have said.
North Korea has sidestepped previous agreements, allegedly running a uranium-based weapons program even as it froze a plutonium-based one - sparking the latest nuclear crisis in late 2002. The country is believed to have countless mountainside tunnels in which to hide projects.
After the initial 60 days, a joint meeting will be convened of foreign ministers from all countries at the talks - China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas. Another meeting of the nuclear envoys was scheduled for March 19.
Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement, the North was to receive 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year before construction was completed of two nuclear reactors that would be able to generate 2 million kilowatts of electricity.
That deal fell apart in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program, sparking the latest nuclear crisis that led to the six-nation talks.
In September 2005, North Korea was promised energy aid and security guarantees in exchange for pledging to abandon its nuclear programs. But talks on implementing that agreement repeatedly stalled on other issues. |
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