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N. Korea Reminded To Fulfill Its Pledge


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Los Angeles Times

April 16, 2007

 

N. Korea Reminded To Fulfill Its Pledge

 

U.S. is displeased by the failure to shut a nuclear reactor but says it will wait a few more days.

 

By Associated Press

 

SEOUL — The U.S. said Sunday that North Korea must act within days on a pledge to halt its nuclear weapons program, after the Pyongyang government failed to meet a Saturday deadline to shut down and seal a nuclear reactor.

 

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Washington was prepared "to hold on for a few more days" after his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, asked the U.S. for patience.

 

"We're not happy that the [North] essentially has missed this very important deadline," Hill told reporters after talks with Wu in Beijing. "We're obviously going to be watching the situation very closely in the coming days."

 

The United States sent a message to North Korea through its embassy in China urging it to fulfill commitments of a February agreement that would give the Pyongyang regime energy aid and political concessions in return for disarming.

 

The North said last week it would proceed only when it received money from accounts frozen in 2005 after the U.S. blacklisted a Macao bank suspected of money laundering and other illicit activities. The $25 million was freed last week, but it remains unclear when the North will receive the money.

 

Hill said he expected the countries involved in the talks — China, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and North and South Korea — would meet before month's end to discuss the next steps.

 

No official comment has come from the North, which was preoccupied Sunday with celebrations of the birthday of late founder Kim Il Sung.

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Los Angeles Times

April 17, 2007

 

N. Korea May Shut Reactor Soon

 

Activity near its main nuclear facility may be in preparation to shutter it, news reports say.

 

By Associated Press

 

SEOUL — North Korea may be preparing to shut down its main nuclear reactor, news reports said today, renewing hopes that Pyongyang will comply with a disarmament agreement days after it missed a deadline to shutter the facility.

 

The reports came a day after a South Korean official said his government might suspend rice shipments to North Korea to ratchet up pressure on the North to comply with its nuclear disarmament pledges.

 

The Yongbyon reactor was still in operation, but there was a high possibility that movement of cars and people seen in satellite photos could be linked to a shutdown, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified intelligence official. The Dong-A Ilbo daily carried a similar report.

 

The reports come after the North missed a Saturday deadline to shut down the reactor and allow U.N. inspectors to verify that and seal the facility under a February accord with the U.S. and four other countries.

 

Pyongyang said last week that honoring its pledge was contingent on the release of money frozen in a Macao bank. Washington had blacklisted the bank because a U.S. investigation concluded that funds in the North Korean accounts were used in money laundering and counterfeiting.

 

The money was freed for withdrawal last week, but it was unclear when North Korea would move to get its $25 million.

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From Defence Talk

 

Unusual activity seen around NKorea reactor

Agence France-Presse | Apr 17, 2007

 

SEOUL: US satellites have spotted unusual activity around North Korea's nuclear reactor, South Korea's intelligence service said Tuesday, and news reports said Pyongyang may be preparing to shut it down.

 

Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said the US images obtained Monday have been shared with South Korea.

 

"The US took satellite images which captured unusual movements of people and vehicles around the cooling tower and parking lot in the Yongbyon nuclear facility," the paper said.

 

It said Washington and Seoul believe it is likely the activities are part of operations to close down the reactor.

 

The National Intelligence Service said it was aware of the activity but did not say what it might mean.

 

"There were some unusual movements there and we are now following and analysing them," a spokesman told AFP.

 

Yongbyon is at the centre of a stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament process.

 

The United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia reached an agreement in February that North Korea disable its nuclear programmes in exchange for a million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid, plus security and diplomatic benefits.

 

Under the first phase it was supposed by April 14 to have shut down and sealed its reactor, which produces the raw material for plutonium to make bombs, in the presence of UN atomic inspectors.

 

But the deadline slipped without action due to delays in freeing up 25 million dollars in North Korean funds which had been frozen in a Macau bank at US instigation.

 

The United States said the money at Banco Delta Asia was made available last week.

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From DefenseNews

 

Posted 04/20/07 11:13

North Korea Pledges Nuclear Shutdown When Banking Row Is Settled

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, SEOUL

 

North Korea April 20 repeated promises to start shutting down its nuclear program once a banking dispute is settled, as South Korea pondered when to resume crucial rice aid to its impoverished neighbor.

In its second such message in a week, the communist state pledged to invite U.N. atomic agency inspectors the moment it can confirm that its funds, which had been frozen in a Macau bank, have been unblocked.

A multinational agreement on scrapping the nuclear program is in limbo because of the dispute over the $25 million dollars in Banco Delta Asia (BDA).

The U.S. Treasury blacklisted BDA in September 2005, alleging that some of the North Korean accounts there contained the proceeds of money-laundering and counterfeiting.

In an effort to make progress on the nuclear issue, Washington announced last week the money is available for collection or transfer. But foreign banks are reluctant to accept the transferred cash for fear of being tainted by suspect money.

The April 20 Korean Central News Agency report appeared to suggest some progress had been made.

The issue has “not yet been completely settled,” it said, quoting a message sent April 20 by Ri Je-Son, head of North Korea’s atomic energy department, to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

”Working negotiations are now brisk between a DPRK (North Korea) bank and (BDA) to settle the issue,” the message said.

As soon as there is confirmation the funds are available, IAEA inspectors would be invited to discuss “suspending the operation” of the Yongbyon reactor.

The North committed itself to shutting down and sealing Yongbyon in the presence of IAEA inspectors, under the first phase of a February 13 six-nation disarmament pact.

The reactor produces the raw material for plutonium, used to make bombs, one of which was tested by the North last October.

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun said April 19 that a portion of the North Korean money has been wired to an unidentified bank in Southeast Asia as a test to see if the transaction can be successful.

If so, it will take more than a month to finish transferring all the funds from the 52 accounts involved, the newspaper quoted a source as saying. There was no confirmation of the report.

In Pyongyang, North and South Korea were holding a third day of talks on rice aid and joint economic projects.

The meeting followed a stormy session Thursday, when North Korea’s chief delegate briefly walked out after the South called on its neighbor to start denuclearizing.

The North, which admits it faces a one-million-ton food shortfall this year, wants an unconditional commitment from the South to provide an annual 400,000 tons of rice aid. It says political issues should not be raised at the economic talks.

Press reports have said Seoul may link rice to progress on denuclearization after the North missed an April 14 deadline to start the process because of the BDA row.

However, pool reports from Pyongyang quoted an unidentified South Korean official as saying the rice aid would not become contentious because it was already agreed upon during a ministerial meeting in March.

Seoul suspended its regular annual shipment of 400,000 tons of rice after the North’s missile tests last July. Relations soured further after its October nuclear test but improved when the North returned to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

The South agreed in principle in March to restart the rice shipments but did not fix a date for the resumption.

 

[surprise, surprise ... a promise with conditions attached]. :rolleyes:

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