N. Korea nuclear pact praised
N. Korea nuclear pact praised
JAKARTA (Reuter): The leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan used a joint meeting in Jakarta last night to hail the importance of the U.S.-North Korean nuclear pact.
"They strongly endorsed the...agreed framework for settling the nuclear issue, which opens the way to a new era of stability and increased prosperity in the region," a joint statement issued after the meeting said.
U.S. President Bill Clinton, South Korean President Kim Young- sam and Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama held their meeting on the eve of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"The three leaders shared the view that the security of the Korean peninsula is essential to the stability and prosperity of the region and affirmed the importance of the continued role for the United States in ensuring security in this part of the world," the statement said.
The mini-summit, held immediately after they attended a dinner hosted by President Soeharto to kick off the APEC leaders meeting, followed a series of bilateral meetings between the leaders earlier in the day.
The Korean issue also featured prominently when Clinton and Murayama met separately with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is also in town for the APEC meeting.
At an earlier press briefing, Clinton said the leaders "all said they strongly supported the agreement and that they thought it was very important that we continue to work it through" in close coordination.
"They understood that the implementation of the agreement would not be without difficulty and it would require a lot of efforts on several fronts."
The accord, signed by North Korea and the United States on Oct. 21 in Geneva, commits Pyongyang to freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program in return for more than $4 billion in new nuclear technology and interim energy supplies.
The two parties have set up a series of working groups to decide how to implement the pact.
They began with a meeting in Pyongyang last weekend of U.S. and North Korean experts who will decide what to do with 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in a North Korean holding pond.
On Friday, U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials meet in Washington to set up an international consortium, the Korean Energy Development Organization (KEDO), to underwrite Pyongyang's $4 billion shift from graphite nuclear reactors.
The graphite reactors, which make it easy to divert fuel for nuclear weapons, will be replaced by light-water reactors, which are less susceptible to proliferation.
South Korea and Japan are expected to bear the lion's share of the cost of the project. Just how much each will pay must still must be agreed and a senior U.S. official acknowledged yesterday that this would be a "tough issue."
China may not help finance the agreement but as the only country with any real influence in Pyongyang, its backing was important in reaching the accord and will continue to be critical in ensuring North Korea honors its commitments.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Clinton "there are no differences between the United States and the Chinese on the Korean issue," said one U.S. official. Jiang also stressed his agreement with Washington on the need for North Korea to resume a dialog with the South.