North Korea nuclear talks in disarray

By Brian Rhoads and Teruaki Ueno

BEIJING (Reuters) – Talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear
program were in disarray on Friday as a stand-off over
Pyongyang’s demand for a light-water reactor was exacerbated by
its threat to boost weapons production.

As delegations gathered for a fourth day of talks, the
United States said the North’s demand was holding up an end to
a three-year crisis that would allow aid and security
guarantees for the impoverished state if it abandoned all
nuclear programs.

“We are at a bit of a stand-off at this point. We have to
see how this plays out,” chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill
told reporters in Beijing, where North and South Korea, the
United States, Japan, Russia and China are meeting.

“I want to stress that we all want to resolve this through
a diplomatic way. (North Korea), not for the first time, has
chosen to isolate itself,” Hill said.

Failure to reach an accord at the Beijing talks could
prompt Washington to take the issue to the U.N. Security
Council and press for sanctions. China opposes such a move, and
North Korea has said sanctions would be tantamount to war.

The North is standing firm on its demand for light-water
reactors, which generate electricity but are unsuitable for
making nuclear arms.

“The issue of a light-water reactor is one that’s related
to the political commitment by the United States to clear its
hostility against us and to peacefully co-exist,” a spokesman
for the North Korean delegation told reporters.

“We are demanding something specific, not an empty right to
peaceful nuclear activities. All the countries have expressed
understanding of our position, but only the United States is
adamantly against it.”

South Korea has said it would not be opposed in principle
to Pyongyang having a civilian atomic energy program in future.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted sources at talks as saying
North Korea has indicated it will “keep boosting production” of
nuclear weapons if it is not given a light-water nuclear
reactor.

Kyodo said that according to the sources, North Korea told
the U.S. and Japanese delegations to the talks in Beijing: “As
long as our concerns about the light-water reactors are not
fulfilled, we cannot abandon nuclear weapons.”

Apart from raising the stakes with hints on boosting
weapons production, North Korea also indicated it was
proceeding with the processing of spent fuel rods into
plutonium, Kyodo said.

U.S. intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has already
produced enough bomb-grade plutonium fuel from a five-megawatt
reactor shut down in 1994 to make nine or more nuclear weapons.

Washington says Pyongyang, once branded as part of an “axis
of evil” along with Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, must end
all nuclear programs verifiably and irreversibly.

It says the North can then expect aid and security
guarantees, but Pyongyang wants the aid and guarantees first.

Washington has urged North Korea to focus on a draft joint
statement that sets out the principle of a nuclear-free Korean
peninsula and contains a South Korean offer to supply the North
with electricity roughly equivalent to Pyongyang’s total
output.

“We have a pretty good deal on the table,” Hill said.

The latest talks resumed on Tuesday, five weeks after a
marathon 13-day session at which the six countries failed to
reach agreement even on a statement of basic principles.
Negotiations first began in 2003.

The stand-off began in October 2002 when Washington said
Pyongyang had admitted to a secret program to enrich uranium,
used to make nuclear weapons, in violation of a 1994 agreement.

North Korea denied the charge at the time, and responded by
throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors at the end of 2002 and
withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003.

Last February, the North said it had nuclear bombs.

(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in TOKYO)