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NKorea's disablement to begin in mid October: report
Seoul (AFP) Oct 7, 2007 North Korea will likely begin disabling its nuclear facilities in mid-October under a disarmament-for-aid deal that should see the process completed by year's end, a news report said Sunday. The disablement would take 45 days from the start until late November or early December, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said quoting unnamed officials. The report came after top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Washington was preparing to send a team of experts to North Korea this week ahead to discuss initiating the process. Seoul's former unification minister Jong Se-Hyun, who met the North's chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan in Pyongyang during the inter-Korean summit last week, has said Kim wants to quickly get disablement started. Under a six-nation deal announced Wednesday, North Korea will disable its five-megawatt plutonium producing reactor and two other facilities at Yongbyon and also declare all its nuclear programmes by December 31. In return, the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea will provide the energy-starved North with another 900,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, in addition to 100,000 tonnes already sent. As part of diplomatic rewards for the North's disablement, Washington has promised to work towards removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and eventually normalising diplomatic ties. The United States has reiterated that normalisation would be possible only after North Korea is fully denuclearised. It is not known how much nuclear weapons material or how many nuclear detonating devices the North has. Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in October last year.
earlier related report The leaders of North and South Korea agreed at a landmark summit in Pyongyang last week that "three or four nations" should meet to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 conflict with a permanent peace agreement. The Pyongyang accord has raised questions about who should participate in such a meeting, as the war involved four main parties -- the two Koreas, the United States, which led UN forces, and China, which backed the North. "As this issue requires a consensus among the four parties, we'll push for it after listening to China," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-Seon said Sunday, when asked whether eventual talks would involve three or four parties. "It leaves fully open the possibility of China participating together with the two Koreas in the peace talks." Officials in Seoul have said that the two Koreas and the United States are "three" basic parties to the peace talks, with China remaining an option. But the armistice was signed by China, North Korea and the US-led United Nations forces, but not by South Korea. When asked when peace talks could take place before President Roh Moo-Hyun's term ends next February, Cheon said he could not give "a definitive answer." South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said Sunday the peace talks could come before or after a formal declaration that the war is over, adding that the timing should be linked to progress in denuclearising the North. US President George W. Bush has said that he will only discuss replacing the armistice with a peace treaty once Pyongyang abandons its nuclear drive. At the latest six-nation talks, the North agreed to disable its key plutonium-producing nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programmes by December 31. Following last week's summit, North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il is scheduled to visit Seoul in November for talks with his South Korean counterpart Han Duck-Soo, Cheon said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Iran Becomes Topic A On The Net
Washington (UPI) Oct 5, 2007 Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, a take-no-prisoners hardliner and neocon icon, said in London there was only one option left to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions -- bombing. U.N. sanctions, reasoned Bolton, would continue to be opposed by Russia and China. The EU team of France, Britain and Germany is less than solid. Germany does more business with Iran than any other European country. About 1,700 German companies are active in Iran ($7 billion in trade), where most companies are equipped with German technology. Under U.S. pressure, Germany's three main commercial banks have closed their Tehran offices, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, from the U.N. rostrum, urged a hard line against Iran's nuclear program. But this finds little favorable echo in the Bundestag. Thus, EU sanctions would most likely be watered down to where neither Iran nor Germany would feel much pain. |
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