U.S. wants RI to support KEDO

U.S. wants RI to support KEDO

JAKARTA (JP): The United States is calling for Indonesia's
participation in the newly-formed Korean Peninsula Energy
Development Organization (KEDO) consortium, intended to supply
North Korea with "safe" reactors.

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Robert Gallucci said yesterday that
he hoped Indonesia would support KEDO, both politically and
economically.

"We would be very interested in an active Indonesian role,
politically and substantially," Gallucci said.

KEDO was formed by the U.S., South Korea and Japan on Thursday
to supply North Korea with two 1,000 megawatt Light Water
Reactors (LWR) to replace the graphite-based reactors that
Pyongyang is currently developing.

North Korea's agreement to convert to LWRs, which produce less
weapons grade plutonium, has alleviated world fears that North
Korea was developing its nuclear capability.

The establishment of KEDO follows a breakthrough agreement
between a U.S. delegation, headed by Gallucci, and North Korea in
Geneva last October.

The U.S. agreed to supply North Korea with an alternative
energy source, in the form of heavy oil, while the reactors are
being built. Pyongyang received the first shipment of 50,000 tons
of heavy oil from the U.S. in January.

"Indonesia is in a position to help with heavy fuel oil ...
and financially directly," Gallucci said from Washington during a
Worldnet Dialog with panelists from Seoul, Tokyo, Canberra and
Jakarta.

The project is expected to cost over $4 billion, with Seoul
providing the bulk of the funds and Tokyo bearing about 30
percent.

A row has erupted recently, with North Korea rejecting the
South Korean-made reactors about to be supplied.

Pyongyang is questioning the quality of the South Korean
reactors, while Washington says North Korea has no alternative
but to accept them.

Prior to the establishment of KEDO, a preparatory conference
involving 20 countries was held in New York.

The six members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) -- Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand -- took part in the conference.

Gallucci said that after the conference the U.S. was "hopeful
that countries would conclude that it was in their interest to
politically support the organization and then do so also
materially, and I would say that is certainly true of Indonesia."

When asked about the notable absence of China, from both the
preparatory conference and from KEDO, Gallucci said Beijing had
been invited but had declined to attend. However, he stressed
that Beijing fully supported the October agreement.

"They told us that they could support the agreed framework
better by remaining outside KEDO than by joining KEDO," Gallucci
explained.(mds)