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North Korea nuclear talks in disarray

Posted on: Thursday, 15 September 2005, 20:46 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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