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US State Secretary Explains Usefulness of South Korea's Energy Aid to Pyongyang

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 06:00 CDT

Excerpt from report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 13 July: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed South Korea's proposal to North Korea to trade energy for nuclear dismantlement on Wednesday [13 July], saying it can help address the North's energy needs without proliferation concerns.

"In the June 2004 proposal, we recognized that the North Koreans have energy needs... [ellipses as published] the issue is how those energy needs will be met, particularly in the face of significant proliferation concerns about nuclear energy in North Korea," Rice told a news conference with her South Korean counterpart, Ban Ki- moon. "That is what is so useful about the South Korean proposal."

The proposal centres on providing the North with 2m kW of electricity annually if the communist state agrees to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. [Passage omitted]

Rice said the issue is now whether the communist state is prepared to make a strategic decision to abandon its plutonium-and uranium-based nuclear programmes.

"Nuclear programme means a nuclear programme. Period," she said, referring to the North's alleged highly-enriched uranium (HEU) programme. Washington claims Pyongyang admitted to having it, but the North has denied the claim. This difference has been considered one of the biggest obstacles to resolving the nuclear problem.

There were reports that the US agreed not to raise the HEU issue in exchange for North Korea not claiming the six-party talks should be turned into arms reduction talks. Rice denied these reports.

When asked if she is willing to visit North Korea, Rice said she has "no such plans" because the nuclear issue is not only a problem for the US, but for all countries in the region.

She said she is "optimistic" that international efforts to resolve the nuclear issue will "bear fruit". [Passage omitted]

North Korea, which fears it might come under attack by the US, is demanding a security guarantee and economic incentives from the US in return for freezing its nuclear weapons programme.

But Washington insists that Pyongyang move first to verifiably scrap its nuclear weapons programmes before any concessions are granted.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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