Post by Steve Gardner on Jan 5, 2008 12:07:46 GMT
Source: New York Times
By CHOE SANG-HUN and STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: January 5, 2008
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Friday that it had already explained enough about its nuclear programs to meet a deadline for declaring its nuclear activities, saying the information was in a nuclear declaration it prepared in November and gave to the United States.
The statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry on Friday was carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s voice to the outside world. It was the country’s first official pronouncement after it missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and, according to other nations involved in six-nation talks, failed to provide a full list of its nuclear activities, including weapons, facilities and fissile material.
The statement said that North Korea had already conducted “enough discussions” with the United States officials after they demanded more negotiations on its November draft declaration. Using the abbreviation of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Foreign Ministry said, “As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, the D.P.R.K. has done what it should do.”
In Washington, officials disputed North Korea’s claims, saying the government in Pyongyang had not yet provided a declaration. They muted their criticism, however, and said that issue had not reached an impasse.
“The North Koreans know what’s expected of them and what the rest of the parties are looking for, and that is a full and complete and accurate declaration of their nuclear activity,” said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. “They know that.”
The chief American negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, left Washington on Friday en route to China, where the status of North Korea’s adherence to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear weapons program will be the focus of a new round of negotiations. An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation, played down the North Korean statement, saying it followed a pattern of public posturing in advance of new talks.
Since the passing of the deadline, agreed on in October, the United States, South Korea and Japan have criticized the North and called for details on how much plutonium it had produced at Yongbyon, whether it had provided nuclear assistance to Syria and what it had done with tons of aluminum tubes it had bought from Russia, the type that could be used to build centrifuges to enrich uranium.
The State Department’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that the United States and the other countries involved in the talks had not reacted more strongly to the missed deadline because foreign nuclear experts were continuing their work to dismantle the Yongbyon plant, hoping through that work to learn more about aspects of North Korea’s nuclear program.
“We’re breaking new ground here,” Mr. McCormack said. “This hasn’t been done before.”
Earlier in the day, North Korea also renewed its threat to bolster its “war deterrent,” a phrase it uses for its nuclear arsenal. The North, with one of the world’s largest standing armies, usually threatens to bolster its deterrent when it feels international pressure in crucial negotiations.
North Korea has acknowledged building bombs with plutonium, but has denied pursuing an alternative weapons program using enriched uranium.
In the October deal that North Korea struck with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, it promised to disable its nuclear facilities and give a full list of its nuclear programs in exchange for one million tons of heavy fuel oil, or its economic equivalent, and diplomatic concessions.
It has so far received 150,000 tons of oil and 5,010 tons of steel products to renovate its aging power plants.
On Friday, North Korea accused the United States and other countries of delaying the fulfillment of their commitments to provide the aid and remove the North from American terrorism and trade blacklists.
“We still hold hope that the Oct. 3 agreement will be implemented smoothly if all countries participating in the six-party talks make sincere efforts based on the principle of action for action,” the statement said.
North Korea said the disablement work at Yongbyon was “completed within the technologically possible scope as of Dec. 31.”
But since the aid delivery “has not been done even 50 percent,” the North had to “adjust the speed of the nuclear disablement process,” it said. The work of unloading spent fuel rods from the North’s nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, a crucial part of the disablement, will take an additional 100 days, it said.
By CHOE SANG-HUN and STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: January 5, 2008
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Friday that it had already explained enough about its nuclear programs to meet a deadline for declaring its nuclear activities, saying the information was in a nuclear declaration it prepared in November and gave to the United States.
The statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry on Friday was carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s voice to the outside world. It was the country’s first official pronouncement after it missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and, according to other nations involved in six-nation talks, failed to provide a full list of its nuclear activities, including weapons, facilities and fissile material.
The statement said that North Korea had already conducted “enough discussions” with the United States officials after they demanded more negotiations on its November draft declaration. Using the abbreviation of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Foreign Ministry said, “As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, the D.P.R.K. has done what it should do.”
In Washington, officials disputed North Korea’s claims, saying the government in Pyongyang had not yet provided a declaration. They muted their criticism, however, and said that issue had not reached an impasse.
“The North Koreans know what’s expected of them and what the rest of the parties are looking for, and that is a full and complete and accurate declaration of their nuclear activity,” said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. “They know that.”
The chief American negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, left Washington on Friday en route to China, where the status of North Korea’s adherence to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear weapons program will be the focus of a new round of negotiations. An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation, played down the North Korean statement, saying it followed a pattern of public posturing in advance of new talks.
Since the passing of the deadline, agreed on in October, the United States, South Korea and Japan have criticized the North and called for details on how much plutonium it had produced at Yongbyon, whether it had provided nuclear assistance to Syria and what it had done with tons of aluminum tubes it had bought from Russia, the type that could be used to build centrifuges to enrich uranium.
The State Department’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that the United States and the other countries involved in the talks had not reacted more strongly to the missed deadline because foreign nuclear experts were continuing their work to dismantle the Yongbyon plant, hoping through that work to learn more about aspects of North Korea’s nuclear program.
“We’re breaking new ground here,” Mr. McCormack said. “This hasn’t been done before.”
Earlier in the day, North Korea also renewed its threat to bolster its “war deterrent,” a phrase it uses for its nuclear arsenal. The North, with one of the world’s largest standing armies, usually threatens to bolster its deterrent when it feels international pressure in crucial negotiations.
North Korea has acknowledged building bombs with plutonium, but has denied pursuing an alternative weapons program using enriched uranium.
In the October deal that North Korea struck with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, it promised to disable its nuclear facilities and give a full list of its nuclear programs in exchange for one million tons of heavy fuel oil, or its economic equivalent, and diplomatic concessions.
It has so far received 150,000 tons of oil and 5,010 tons of steel products to renovate its aging power plants.
On Friday, North Korea accused the United States and other countries of delaying the fulfillment of their commitments to provide the aid and remove the North from American terrorism and trade blacklists.
“We still hold hope that the Oct. 3 agreement will be implemented smoothly if all countries participating in the six-party talks make sincere efforts based on the principle of action for action,” the statement said.
North Korea said the disablement work at Yongbyon was “completed within the technologically possible scope as of Dec. 31.”
But since the aid delivery “has not been done even 50 percent,” the North had to “adjust the speed of the nuclear disablement process,” it said. The work of unloading spent fuel rods from the North’s nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, a crucial part of the disablement, will take an additional 100 days, it said.
