From DefenseNews

 

Posted 02/13/07 08:14

N. Korea Agrees to Shut Key Nuclear Facilities

By JUN KWANWOO and SHIGEMI SATO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BEIJING

 

North Korea agreed Tuesday to shut down key nuclear facilities within two months in exchange for badly needed fuel, part of a broad agreement aimed at ending the regime’s controversial nuclear program.

In return, the U.S. would hold direct talks on diplomatic relations with North Korea — a member of President Bush’s "axis of evil” — and begin looking at removing it from the U.S. list of terrorist nations.

The deal came after nearly a week of grueling six-nation talks in Beijing aimed at convincing the secretive Stalinist state, which tested an atomic bomb for the first time in October, to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Chinese negotiator Wu Dawei said an "important consensus" had been reached at the talks, which would resume in Beijing on March 19 to verify that the deal is being properly implemented.

"It marks an important and solid step for the six-party talks and a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," Wu told reporters. "This progress has made the talks a success."

Under the deal, North Korea would have 60 days to shut down its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow United Nations nuclear inspectors back into the country.

Meanwhile, the energy-starved regime would receive a first tranche of 50,000 tons of fuel oil — part of an eventual 1 million tons if the accord progresses as spelt out and the North permanently disables its key nuclear facilities.

Chief U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said he was pleased with the outcome but warned there was stil a long way to go before the end goal of a denuclearized North Korea was achieved.

"This is only the end of the beginning of the process. We have a lot of work to do," he told reporters.

Previously, North Korea agreed at six-way talks in September 2005 to scrap its atomic plans but then boycotted the negotiations for over a year, and still earlier agreements foundered on disputes between Washington and Pyongyang.

South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan have been holding nearly four years of on-again, off-again talks with the North, one of the poorest and most isolated nations in the world.

In 2002, President Bush lumped North Korea in with Iran and pre-war Iraq as an "axis of evil" linked to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — while the North has repeatedly condemned Washington’s "hostile policy".

But with the new deal, the two countries will "start bilateral talks aimed at resolving pending bilateral issues and moving toward full diplomatic relations," the joint statement said.

Removing the North from the U.S. list of terrorist sponsors could also clear the way for U.S. firms to do business with North Korea.

According to the new agreement, North Korea would "shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment" its main Yongbyon nuclear plant and make an accounting of all its nuclear programs and capabilities.

Included in that list would be plutonium already extracted from fuel rods, which outside analysts have estimated would be enough for the North to make several nuclear weapons.

But the public announcement made no mention of previous U.S. allegations that the North was secretly enriching uranium — a charge that led to the breakdown of a previous agreement to help Pyongyang build nuclear reactors for energy.

North Korea had repeatedly said it would not make concessions until the U.S. ended financial sanctions aimed at blocking its access to the international banking system.

There was also no mention of those unilateral sanctions in the joint deal, but Hill told reporters afterward that the U.S. now intends to resolve the dispute within 30 days.

The joint announcement did say that North Korea would address another tricky bilateral dispute — its abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s.

But within an hour of the announcement, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said his country would not provide energy aid until "progress" was made on the abductions issue. Japan believes the North is still holding some of its people.

From Jane's Intelligence Digest

 

Nuclear North Korea no more?

 

The six-party agreement of 13 February 2007 is viewed by some as a sensible compromise by the Bush administration, within which North Korea could be persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for support and recognition. However, others have criticised both its similarities and potential shortcomings when compared to the Agreed Framework Agreement of 1994.

 

Concerns have also arisen about the message this sends to other would-be proliferators, particularly at a time when Iran’s case is at the UN Security Council. While it remains to be seen if there is wider fallout from the six-party agreement, a more immediate question is what effect the deal will have on North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability in the short-term.

 

Within the first 60 days of the deal, North Korea has pledged to shut down and seal its five megawatts (MW) Yongbyon nuclear reactor and neighbouring reprocessing facility. This is to be verified by International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) inspectors who will be granted access to the site to monitor the cessation of activity. The nuclear facility has been the major source of plutonium for North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and this step, if implemented, would suspend North Korea's indigenous capability to add to its existing plutonium stockpile.