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Seoul will have to revise a plan to supply North Korea with 2 million kw of electricity a year in return for dismantling its nuclear program, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said Thursday. "The proposal was predicated on North Korea giving up its nuclear development program and not building any light-water reactors," Lee told the National Assembly. But a Sept. 19 statement of principles agreed in six-nation talks ¡°has it that the North will abandon its nuclear program but may build reactors sometime in the future."
The proposal was intended to persuade Pyongyang to give up all its nuclear ambitions by supplying electricity with a view to promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean economic cooperation, Lee said. But he said it was now ¡°no longer necessary for Seoul to pay the maximum cost.¡± He added the contents of the proposal were fluid and the government will ¡°search for a way to realize the proposal at minimum possible cost."
Lee also said his government will ¡°under no circumstances¡± shoulder the full cost of dismantling a halted project to build a light-water reactor in the North¡¯s Sinpo.
However, a Unification Ministry official later said the remarks meant that the period of power supply could change if new light-water reactors are built in North Korea. But he added, ¡°Nothing has changed in the government¡¯s position on the power supply proposal.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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