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South Korea Urges North to Dismantle Nuclear Weapons Programmes

Posted on: Monday, 24 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 24 October: Unification Minister Chung Dong-young Monday [24 October] urged North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes before receiving light water nuclear reactors (LWR) in reward. "Once they do that, North Korea will be entitled to enjoy their rights to use nuclear energy in a peaceful way and it is very natural for North Korea to have such a right once they have done all these things," Chung said in an interview with the Financial Times. "Of course, the right to use nuclear energy in a peaceful way will include the construction of light water reactors."

Chung was commenting on the differing positions between North Korea and the United States on the "appropriate time" to begin talks for provision of LWRs to the North in a reward for Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear weapons programmes. In a joint statement signed at the end of the fourth round of the six-party talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes, the participants in the talks agreed to begin talks for LWR provision at an "appropriate time", enough of an ambiguity to give rise to different explanations by the two main protagonists to the multilateral nuclear disarmament talks.

The US insists North Korea must verifiably get rid of its nuclear weapons and programmes before receiving any rewards, while Pyongyang says it will do that only after receiving LWRs from Washington. The issue will likely be at the centre of discussions at the next round of the nuclear talks slated for early November. On the future of the six-party talks, Chung said: "With the last agreement on the six- party talks we have crossed a huge mountain, but we still have many hills and rivers to cross in the future."

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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