N.Korea Shuts Down Reactor, but Problems Remain

N.Korea Shuts Down Reactor, but Problems Remain

North Korea on Sunday said it shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. A senior government official in Seoul said, "Through a channel in New York on Sunday morning, North Korea said it kept its promise to shut down its nuclear facilities upon arrival of the first shipment of heavy fuel oil." In the U.S., State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "We were told today that North Korea shut down its nuclear facility at Yongbyon." The news came right after the first shipment of 6,200 tons of heavy oil arrived at Seonbong Port in North Korea in accordance with a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement.
The Yongbyon reactor was shut down four years and five months after it resumed operation in late February 2003, right after then U.S. assistant secretary of state James Kelley visited Pyongyang. Officials in Seoul predict it will take about two weeks for inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday, to verify the shut-down, install monitoring cameras and seal the reactor.



Meanwhile, the chief U.S. negotiator in the six-party talks Christopher Hill arrived in Seoul on Sunday for strategic consultations before a meeting of the chief negotiators in Beijing on Wednesday. Hill met Sunday evening with Foreign Minister Song Min-soon to discuss the next steps under the agreement -- disablement of nuclear facilities and reporting of other nuclear programs to the IAEA. On Monday, Hill meets Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung and Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo.
Almost no Washington experts on the Korean Peninsula, however, evaluated the shutdown of the reactor as remarkable progress. They say a long road lies ahead given that the Yongbyon reactor should by rights have been shut down right after a Sept. 19, 2005 statement of principles agreed in the six-party talks. Hill commented, "I wish I could say we won't have any more problems, but experience tells me otherwise."

◆ More demands from Pyongyang

In an interview with AP right after the reactor was shut down, the deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the UN Kim Myong-gil set out the next conditions Pyongyang wants the U.S. to meet. Kim said the disablement of facilities would only come if Washington takes actions "in parallel.” "After the shutdown, then we will discuss about the economic sanctions lifting and removing” of the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Kim said.
Washington planned to resolve the two questions as rewards for Pyongyang for disabling the facilities. The U.S. government does not expect either to win congressional approval easily. When the six-party talks resume in Beijing on Wednesday, Washington and Pyongyang will probably wrangle over the complete reporting of all nuclear programs Pyongyang is committed to. Washington alleges that North Korea has a uranium enrichment program, which was the direct cause of the second North Korean nuclear crisis in 2002, and must account for it. But Pyongyang has consistently denied having such a program.

◆ No agreement on what “disable” means

Discussion is likely to continue what exactly is meant by ”disabling” the nuclear facilities. The U.S. believes that is as good as dismantling them, leaving a facility permanently disabled by either taking out the reactor core or filling it with concrete. But North Korea seems to make a clear distinction between dismantlement and disablement.
Then there is the perpetual issue of a light-water reactor Pyongyang wants instead, a matter it apparently raised again during Hill's visit to Pyongyang last month. Pyongyang wants it at the disablement stage. But the Bush administration is against this after the collapse of the 1994 Geneva Accords, which originally promised Pyongyang a light-water reactor in return for the freezing of its nuclear facilities. Washington has only hinted it may consider the demand once the existing nuclear facilities have been disabled. Light-water reactors make it more difficult to produce fissionable material.
In addition, the U.S. is ready to declare a formal end to the Korean War at any time, but feels agreement on a peace framework has to wait until North Korea's nuclear facilities are disabled. But Pyongyang, in military talks it recently proposed to Washington, is expected to call for both discussion of nuclear disarmament and the question of a peace framework. In this, North Korea seems to be trying to exclude Seoul from peace talks.
A senior diplomatic source in Washington said the pace of progress is up to North Korea. "After the Feb. 13 agreement was reached, we wasted five months due to the North Korean funds frozen at the Banco Delta Asia, which nobody had expected. Successful solution of the North Korean nuclear issue will depend on how cooperative Pyongyang will be in the initial stage of the disablement of its nuclear facilities,” he said.

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