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Progress on N Korea nuke plan
14/03/2007 07:18 - (SA)
Seoul - South Korea expressed optimism on Wednesday that a recent landmark deal on ending the North's nuclear weapons programme will be implemented, as negotiators prepared to review the pact's progress.
North Korea pledged during six-nation disarmament talks in Beijing last month to shut down its only operating nuclear reactor by April 14, in return for energy aid and political concessions.
"I believe that the agreements will be implemented," foreign minister Song Min-soon told reporters at a regular briefing.
His comments came a day before officials from the US and the North were set to meet with their counterparts from South Korea, China, Russia and Japan in Beijing to discuss economic and energy co-operation as part of five working group sessions established under the February 13 accord.
Optimistic
The officials will also hold two separate meetings on peace and security in Northeast Asia, and on denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula, before resuming a full session of the nuclear talks on Monday.
Song said Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA, would brief related countries' officials after returning to Beijing from the North on Wednesday night.
Elbaradei was also likely to meet with chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who was set to arrive Wednesday in Beijing.
Details of his talks with North Korean officials were not immediately available, but ElBaradei said on Tuesday he was optimistic about better relations with the North in the wake of its February 13 deal.
"We hope we can make progress in our relationship," the chief UN nuclear inspector said after arriving in Pyongyang, Associated Press Television News reported. "I hope the outcome will be positive."
The visit is the latest sign the North is complying with a disarmament agreement, under which it is to take the first steps to disarm since becoming embroiled in an international standoff over its nuclear ambitions in late 2002.
Then, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors after US officials accused the communist nation of running a secret uranium enrichment programme in violation of a 1994 disarmament deal.
The North later restarted its main reactor at Yongbyon, and is believed to have produced enough plutonium in recent years for as many as a dozen nuclear bombs - including the weapon it detonated in an underground test blast on October 9.
Under the February 13 agreement, North Korea has until April 14 to shut down and seal the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and a reprocessing facility in exchange for an initial shipment of 50 000 tons of heavy fuel. The IAEA is slated to monitor and verify the shutdown.
Song said there are currently no signs of change in the operation of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
The North is to eventually receive one million tons of heavy fuel oil for abandoning all its nuclear programs. US officials have stressed this must include an alleged uranium enrichment programme, which the North has never publicly admitted having.
- AP
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