South Korea: North Had Plan to Curb Nukes

By JAE-SOON CHANG

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea proposed a five-step plan to abandon its nuclear weapons programs at the latest round of disarmament talks that ended inconclusively last week, South Korea’s top official on relations with the communist nation said Monday.

Despite the proposal, North Korea has insisted that it will not make any move until the United States first offers concessions for giving up its nuclear weapons. Washington has refused the demand.

Under the plan, North Korea said it would first halt any plans for nuclear tests and agree not to transfer nuclear technology or materials to other nations, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said in Seoul.

The North would then agree not to produce more weapons, and afterward suspend and later dismantle its nuclear program, subject to verification, Chung said.

Finally, the North would rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and safeguards under the International Atomic Energy Agency, Chung said.

Chung praised the last round of disarmament talks in Beijing as "meaningful in that North Korea presented its roadmap on nuclear dismantlement."

"Some people have raised fundamental questions if North Korea is willing to give up its nuclear program," he said. "But in this round of talks, we have confirmed there is no disagreement among the six parties that the Korean Peninsula should be free of nuclear weapons, and North Korea also confirmed this."

Before leaving Beijing, however, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan told The Associated Press that his country would not make the first move.

"As we have to follow the `action for action’ principle, we will act if action is made," Kim said Saturday.

China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have sought in five rounds of arms talks to convince the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

In September in the first breakthrough in two years of the six-nation talks, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid. However, Pyongyang the next day insisted it also be given a nuclear reactor for generating power before it would disarm.

The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, urged the North on Friday to shut down its reactor at Yongbyon but said he had rejected Kim’s demand for aid in exchange. Washington has refused to reward Pyongyang until the North’s nuclear program is dismantled.