|
The six countries in talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear problem dramatically agreed on a joint statement, South Korea¡¯s chief delegate to the talks said Sunday. However, the statement will be formally adopted after a two-day recess, subject to approval by the governments of some member countries, he said. After adopting it, the six countries will announce the statement which requires North Korea to report and disable its nuclear facilities by Dec. 31.
Chun said the joint statement pinpoints no deadline for the U.S. to remove the North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, but North Korea did not insist on a date because both the U.S. and the North promised in the statement to stick to a recent Geneva agreement, Chun said. There, Washington promised to remove Pyongyang from the state terrorism sponsor list around the time the North completes the reporting and disablement of its nuclear programs
 |
|
Chun Yung-wo (left), South Korea's lead negotiator in the six-way nuclear talks, Kim Kye-gwan (middle), North Korea's vice foreign minister, and Christopher Hill, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, shake hands at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Sunday, after they agreed to confirm a joint document on disabling and declaring North Korea's nuclear facilities by the end of this year./Yonhap
|
 |
|
A senior government official said the joint statement does not elucidate the detailed scope and ways of nuclear disclosure and disablement. But it contains almost everything from a roadmap South Korea drew up for the denuclearization process, approving agreements reached in six-way working group talks. The document reportedly requires the North to explain its alleged uranium enrichment program when reporting the nuclear programs.
Under the statement, the North must disable three core facilities -- a 5-MW nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, a nuclear rod plant and a reprocessing facility, while reporting all its nuclear programs including plutonium production and accepting international inspections. The process will be completed once all of these steps have been taken and North Korea agrees to scrap all nuclear weapons it claims to have made.
The chief U.S. delegate Christopher Hill said, ¡°The joint statement was very comprehensive...There are lots of details. It is very useful.¡± A South Korean delegate to the nuclear talks said there is a ¡°99.9 percent¡± probability that the joint statement will be adopted after the recess. However, some critics say that although the six countries managed to set a deadline for nuclear reporting and disablement, they failed to clarify the detailed scope of denuclearization as they rushed into a lower-level agreement ahead of the inter-Korean summit this week.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
