Seoul, South Korea – North Korea said it would welcome back U.N. nuclear inspectors within a day of receiving frozen funds that have been an obstacle in negotiations seeking the North’s disarmament, a U.S. presidential candidate said Wednesday.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, speaking in Seoul after a four-day visit to the communist nation, said the North had requested an additional 30 days beyond a Saturday deadline to shut down its main nuclear reactor under a February agreement with the U.S. and other regional powers.
However, he said the U.S. insisted that was too long for a shutdown process that he believed would only take a “few days.”
North Korea ejected inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency in late 2002 at the start of the latest nuclear standoff. Following years of international negotiations beset by boycotts and delays, it conducted its first nuclear-weapons test in October.
The North later agreed to return to negotiations and in February pledged to shut down its main nuclear reactor by a Saturday deadline in exchange for a U.S. promise to resolve a standoff over $25 million in North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank. North Korea would also receive energy aid and political concessions for eventually dismantling its atomic programs.
If North Korea follows through with its promises, they would be the first moves the country has made to scale back its nuclear development since the start of the nuclear standoff.
Authorities in Macau said Wednesday that North Korea can withdraw the frozen money, and Richardson said Pyongyang was expected to be notified of the decision later Wednesday or today that the regime can access its funds.
After getting the money, Richardson said the North pledged to “within that day” invite the IAEA to return to draw up plans for shutting down its sole operating nuclear reactor.
Richardson said the North Koreans had asked for a month to complete the reactor shutdown, but the U.S. delegation insisted that was too long.
“We let them know that this was not acceptable and the issue was dropped,” he said.
“Now the ball is in North Korea’s court to take the next important steps,” he said, adding that officials there had reaffirmed a commitment to making initial moves to disarm.
Acknowledging it might be difficult to meet the Saturday reactor shutdown deadline, he called on the North to show goodwill and invite U.N. inspectors by then “to at least start the process of shutting it down.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States had “gone the extra mile” to resolve the bank issue.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hillis expected in Beijing today and said he was open to a meeting there with North Korea’s main nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan.
Earlier Wednesday, Richardson’s delegation made a rare North-to-South crossing through the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula at the truce village of Panmunjom, also bringing with them the remains of six U.S. soldiers from the Korean War.
