RP wary of N. Korean power proposal

RP wary of N. Korean power proposal

MANILA (Reuter): A delegation seeking to raise funds for an
organization set up to help defuse a North Korean nuclear threat
failed to secure any new financial commitment from Manila, a
senior Philippine official said yesterday.

The three-member team from the financially-troubled Korean
Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) met Philippine
Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon in an effort to drum up new
funding.

Siazon later told reporters the Philippines remained committed
to KEDO as a concept but did not want to get more deeply involved
until it was clear what financial obligations this would entail.
"We have committed support to KEDO but how much should we give?"
Siazon said.

The delegation is touring member states of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which all have a stake in
guaranteeing the security of the prosperous region.
The team arrived here from Indonesia and leaves on Tuesday for
the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei.

KEDO was set up to help implement a breakthrough 1994
agreement between the United States and North Korea which helped
end a nuclear crisis.

The Stalinist state agreed as part of a US$4.5 billion deal to
close down a reactor suspected of being part of a clandestine
nuclear weapons program.

In return, KEDO is to arrange supplies of conventional fuel
oil until two new and safer nuclear reactors are built.

KEDO has already run into problems, with the U.S. Congress
slashing U.S. funding from $25 million to $13 million.

Japan has pledged $19 million while the European Commission
has recommended European nations provide $18 million.

Philippine officials said Manila had paid $150,000.

Indonesia has pledged $325,000 worth of bunker oil, Malaysia
has pledged $300,000, Thailand $100,000 and Singapore has offered
$300,000 over three years, they said.

Siazon said he had repeated a proposal that ASEAN join KEDO as
a group rather than individual members doing so, as a way to
spread the financial burden more equitably.

He told reporters he planned to raise the issue at an ASEAN
foreign ministers' meeting in Jakarta later this month.

KEDO delegation members were not available for comment.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.