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N Korea hands over nuclear data
26/06/2008 14:40 - (SA)
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| Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il are pictured in Pyongyang, after the nuclear declaration was submitted. (Pang Xinglei, Xinhua, AP) |
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Beijing - North Korea handed over details of its nuclear programmes on Thursday, clearing the way to be removed from the US terrorism blacklist amid years of efforts to persuade the North to abandon the atom bomb.
Six months behind schedule, officials delivered the dossier to China - the host country for the six-nation talks since 2003 that have tried to entice the North into exchanging nuclear weapons for aid and diplomatic concessions.
The declaration of the secretive nation's nuclear materials, facilities and programmes was not expected to include a list of its actual atomic weapons, which would come in a later phase of the complex negotiations.
But the provision of the other information - which will face a rigorous verification programme - marks a key step in efforts to get the North to give up its nuclear weapons, which it has said it needs to deter a US attack.
'Axis of evil'
The US administration of George W Bush, who famously included North Korea in his self-styled "axis of evil," swiftly welcomed the handover but cautioned that Pyongyang had much more to do.
"There is still more work to be done in order for North Korea to end its isolation," spokesperson Dana Perino said, adding that the United States nevertheless would begin work in 45 days to remove its blacklisting of North Korea.
"It must dismantle all of its nuclear facilities, give up its separated plutonium, and resolve outstanding questions on its highly enriched uranium and proliferation activities," she said.
"It must end these activities in a fully verifiable way."
Difficult negotiations
Quid-pro-quo deals have been at the heart of the often difficult negotiations with the North, which has several times gone back on commitments since the talks began and even tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006.
The six countries in the talks - North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, the United States and China - will now establish a mechanism to verify that the North has fully come clean on its nuclear programmes.
China's foreign ministry announced the much-anticipated dossier was handed over by the North Korean ambassador, Choe Jin Su.
North Korea, deeply suspicious of the outside world, wants security guarantees as part of the disarmament deal. It has repeatedly said it is under threat from the United States, which it harshly criticises in state propaganda.
It is not known how many nuclear weapons the North may have produced. The US-based Institute for Science and International Security estimated last year that the country had separated enough plutonium for up to 12 nuclear weapons.
At the end of the denuclearisation process, all nuclear weapons and fissile material are expected to be handed over in return for establishing diplomatic ties with the United States and Japan, as well as a formal peace agreement.
North Korea plans to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in front of a worldwide TV audience on Friday as a symbol of its commitment to the process.
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