South Korea Parties Welcome North’s Planned Cooling Tower Destruction

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) – South Korea’s political parties on Friday welcomed North Korea’s scheduled destruction of its nuclear cooling tower, urging the communist regime to completely denuclearize to secure peace on the Korean Peninsula.

“This is a historic day in which North Korea takes its first step towards denuclearization,” said Jo Yoon-sun, spokeswoman of the ruling Grand National Party. “We hope North Korea will promptly complete the dismantling and declaration of its nuclear weapons.”

North Korea was to destroy on Friday the cooling tower at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon as a symbolic gesture of its commitment to dismantle all of its nuclear facilities.

The planned demolition of the 25-meter tall tower came a day after Pyongyang delivered a declaration of its nuclear programmes to China under an agreement reached at the six-party disarmament talks.

Following the long-awaited move, Washington began the process of taking the North off its terrorism blacklist and officially eased some trade sanctions.

Although the destruction of the tower – which has already been out of use and could be easily rebuilt – may not have a significant meaning technically, it is seen as an indication of Pyongyang’s willingness to cooperate in the six-party negotiations. The multi- national talks, which have been dragging on for more than half a decade, include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

“South Koreans welcome North Korea’s explosion of its nuclear tower and look forward to seeing great progress in securing peace on the Korean Peninsula,” said Choi In-kee, chief policy-maker of the main opposition United Democratic Party. “We also hope North Korea and the United States will enter a new phase in their strained relationship with this step.”

The liberal party also pressed its government to make more effort in strengthening the inter-Korean ties, warning that Seoul’s stiff North Korean policy could single it out from the process of Pyongyang’s anticipated denuclearization.

“The government must separate the nuclear issue from the inter- Korean relationship,” Choi said.

Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have been strained since the conservative Lee Myung-bak [Ri Myo'ng-pak] administration took office in late February, with the North making occasional harsh comments towards the new government.

Taking a tougher position towards the nuclear-armed state than his two liberal predecessors, President Lee has made clear on several occasions that his government will proceed with inter- Korean cooperation projects only after the North abandons its nuclear ambitions.

The right-leaning Liberty Forward Party said that while the nuclear issue has reached the critical final stage via North Korea’s recent movements, “naive optimism” must be avoided.

“In truth, blasting the cooling tower does not have a significant meaning as the facility was already out of use,” said staunch conservative Lee Hoi-chang [Lee Hoi-chang], chairman of the party. “It is also regretful that nuclear weapons were excluded from North Korea’s second report which was already long-overdue.”

“It remains to be seen whether North Korea is willing to dutifully carry out denuclearization,” he added. “It must extend full cooperation in the course of verification and thus build its international credibility.”

Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0747 27 Jun 08.

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