June 23, 2007
North Korea Ready to Disable
Nuclear Programmes: US
Seoul
US envoy Christopher Hill has said that North Korea is ready to
disable its main nuclear facilities and reveal all of its nuclear
programmes.
"The D.P.R.K. (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) indicated they
are prepared to disable the Yongbyon facility" as they had agreed to
in February, nuclear negotiator Hill said Friday at a joint press
conference in Seoul with his South Korean counterpart, Chun
Yung-woo.
A team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency
will arrive in Pyongyang Tuesday, IAEA Director General Mohamed El
Baradei said Friday evening in Vienna.
Complete denuclearisation by North Korea can be achieved, said Hill
after returning from Pyongyang where he held talks with his North
Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, and Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.
Hill's two-day visit was the first by a high-ranking US official to
North Korea in five years.
The process, however, was a huge undertaking and "we are going to
have to spend a great deal of time, a great deal of effort, a lot of
work in achieving these," he said.
Chun said North Korea had welcomed the idea of resuming negotiations
at the beginning of July.
China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Hill as saying that he
had discussed "all aspects" of the six-nations process with the two
North Korean ministers.
"I think we're talking about trying to have a six-party meeting as
soon as possible," Hill said, adding that he had no specific date
planned for resuming the nuclear disarmament talks among the six
nations involved - the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China
and Russia.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US "wouldn't
rule out" a meeting even before North Korea shuts down its Yongbyon
reactor.
"You can imagine a situation where that process is well under way to
its completion and you have an envoys-level meeting, in order to
really kick-start discussions on that next phase," he said.
Asked about North Korea's commitment to shut down its nuclear
facilities and the planned normalization of diplomatic ties with the
US, Hill said US officials were seeking a "comprehensive solution"
to both issues.
"So away from this two-day set of meetings, I sense that we are
going to be able to achieve our full objectives, that is complete
denuclearisation" of North Korea, he said.
Hill said he hoped to "make up for some time we lost this spring"
through his talks this week, referring to the stalling of the
six-party process over the transfer of North Korean funds.
The US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific
affairs is on a tour of countries involved in the nuclear talks.
His trip to Pyongyang came four days after North Korea invited the
UN nuclear inspectors back into the country to begin the process of
shutting down the Yongbyon reactor as required by a February 13
six-party agreement.
The closing of Yongbyon has been delayed for more than two months
because of a dispute over funds in a North Korean bank account.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
