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A South Korean official said Wednesday a final draft statement of principles at six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear programs was written to allow both Pyongyang and the U.S. to claim they got their way. He said the draft allowed North Korea to claim it won the right to continue peaceful use of nuclear energy while the U.S. and Japan can claim that the Stalinist country has abandoned it. He said the two sides engaged in a little give and take.
The U.S. initially called for North Korea to dismantle all of its nuclear weapons and programs, but Pyongyang said it would dismantle only nuclear weapons and weapon programs. China's initial draft reportedly made "all nuclear weapons and related programs" subject to dismantlement, clearly allowing the North to use atomic energy peacefully. Washington and Tokyo found this unacceptable, and China revised the draft to include "all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs."
But it opened a back door. "The sentence, 'North Korea may not use nuclear energy peacefully until it rejoins the NPT and undergoes IAEA inspections,¡¯ is clear no matter how you look at it,¡± a South Korean official said. ¡°But it means that after a set period it will no longer be forbidden¡± to use nuclear energy peacefully.
In return, North Korea was reportedly handed another chance to save face. The term "dismantlement," for which the U.S. had pushed and to which North Korea objected, is said to have been replaced with the word "abandonment."
Abandonment suggests a voluntary surrender of something you are entitled to and naturally leads to compensation. Dismantlement, by contrast, suggests something is being eliminated. If it ¡°abandons¡± nuclear weapons and programs, moreover, North Korea can continue to fudge the question whether it had any nuclear arms in the first place.
"The difference between dismantlement and abandonment is not particularly significant,¡± the official commented. ¡°The meaning is the same -- that a body recognized as an authority in the international community will directly eliminate all nuclear facilities and programs, including peaceful-use facilities, from North Korea in a verifiable way."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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