N. Korea, U.S. agree to implement nuke pact

N. Korea, U.S. agree to implement nuke pact

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The United States and North Korea issued a joint statement yesterday affirming an agreement that aims ultimately to restrain the North's ability to make nuclear bombs.

After three weeks of talks in the Malaysian capital, North Korea agreed in the end to accept light-water reactors that will be provided by arch-foe South Korea, the chief U.S. negotiator, Thomas Hubbard, told a news conference.

The two-page statement retains a fig-leaf of ambiguity, and possible stumbling blocks in the weeks ahead, over the sensitive issue.

The statement says the reactors would be provided by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). They would replace North Korea's older graphite models capable of producing the large amounts of plutonium needed to make atom bombs

KEDO is comprised of the United States, Japan and South Korea, which is building and financing the US$4.0 billion reactors and $500,000 worth of heavy crude promised under an accord that was originally struck last October in Geneva.

Hubbard said he made it clear to the North Koreans that KEDO would get the reactors from South Korea and that a South Korean company would be the principal contractor.

Asked why the North agreed in the end to accept the South Korean reactors, Hubbard said: "I believe North Korea wished to receive the light-water reactors, which can become a critical part of their national development.

"I believe North Korea wishes better relations with the United States, wishes to become a more active member of the international community.

"And when faced with our firmness of purpose ... to provide South Korean reactors, I believe the North Koreans drew the conclusion that the benefits of going forward outweighed the disadvantages."

The language of the joint statement would appear to assuage North Korean sensibilities by saying "the reactor model, selected by KEDO, will be the advanced version of U.S.-origin design and technology currently under production".

The statement also said "the U.S. will serve as the principal point of contact with the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) for the LWR (light-water reactor) project", and not South Korea.

The two Koreas have been technically at war since an armistice ended the 1950-53 conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, said the joint statement had removed "stumbling blocks which had prevented smooth implementation" of the Geneva accord.

But he warned that the implementation of the agreement "was in an early stage".

"On our side we are willing to implement the agreed framework," he told the news conference.

The joint statement calls for North Korea to meet "as soon as possible" with KEDO to negotiate "the outstanding issues of the LWR supply agreement".

South Korea said yesterday it would support the agreement after U.S. President Bill Clinton assured President Kim Young-sam that Seoul would play a central role in the project.

Clinton sent a letter to Kim saying light-water nuclear reactors to be provided to the North would be South Korea's standard model, Seoul presidential spokesman Yoon Yeo-joon told reporters.

"President Clinton said the main contractor will be a South Korean company which will have overall responsibility for designing, fabricating, building and managing the nuclear project," Yoon said.

Japan also welcomed the joint statement.

"Japan, as a KEDO board member, will continue to cooperate with the United States, South Korea and other related countries to do its utmost for the implementation of the light-water reactor project," Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said in a written statement in Tokyo.