Beijing – North Korea told South Korea on Wednesday that it wanted to disable all its nuclear facilities by the end of the year, meeting a U.S. request for a complete shutdown that would render the communist regime unable to easily make more nuclear weapons.
The North pledged in February to shut its sole operating reactor and dismantle the rest of its nuclear program in return for 1 million tons of oil and political concessions.
It shut down the Yongbyon reactor over the weekend, and North Korea’s chief negotiator offered Wednesday to meet the year-end deadline for a complete shutdown, South Korean negotiator Chun Yung-woo said.
“North Korea expressed its intention to declare and disable (all its nuclear facilities) within the shortest possible period, even within five or six months, or by the end of the year,” Chun said at the opening session of six-nation talks in Beijing.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan also told South Korea during a one- on-one meeting that his country was “willing to declare all its nuclear programs without omitting a single one,” Chun said.
The pledge of total disclosure is key because the United States accused North Korea in 2002 of having a uranium enrichment program that it has never publicly acknowledged. The U.S accusation sparked a years-long international standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program.
The main U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, declined to give specifics of the discussions, but said China was expected today to provide a target date for North Korea’s declaration and disablement of its nuclear programs.
