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.