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The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill is apparently pleased that North Korea is disabling its nuclear facilities according to schedule, completing the first of 11 agreed steps by this weekend.
¡ß Pyongyang ¡®cooperative¡¯
The disablement of three North Korean nuclear facilities -- the 5 MW atomic reactor, a reprocessing facility and a nuclear fuel rod manufacturing plant at Yongbyon -- began on Monday. The 11 steps include the extraction of spent fuel rods. A senior South Korean government official on Thursday said, "The process is going smoothly because North Korea is very cooperative."
Commenting on progress, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Wednesday said, "This is ground-breaking territory. The world has not been to this point vis-a-vis the North Korean nuclear program before." In an interview the same day, U.S. President George W. Bush cited the issue as one of three tasks he must address while still in office.
The senior South Korean official said, "I believe North Korea will submit a declaration of its nuclear programs in a week or two.¡± Once it does, ¡°the parties concerned will stress the need to hold working-group denuclearization talks and a meeting of chief negotiators to the six-party talks this month,¡± he said. "Some of the disablement measures may not be finished by year's end due to safety problems. But it will be possible to complete most of the important measures this year."
The next key question is whether North Korea will declare all the plutonium it has. If disablement and declaration go as planned, Seoul and Washington will complete the denuclearization of North Korea by dismantling its nuclear materials and nuclear ignition devices by next August, another South Korean official said.
¡ß S.Korea pushing for multilateral summit
In that case, South Korea will likely push for the start of peace talks and a summit of the signatories to the armistice that still officially halts hostilities on the peninsula. Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice in a meeting Wednesday agreed to start peace talks for the Korean Peninsula at a "proper time" depending on progress in North Korean denuclearization.
After the meeting, Song told reporters, "We decided that we need the parties directly concerned, including South Korea and the U.S. So we agreed to keep considering ways to reach political consensus at a summit level." His remarks suggest there is still room for a summit before President Roh Moo-hyun leaves office. The two foreign ministers agreed that the disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities is proceeding in the right direction and at a right speed, Song said.
A South Korean official said Seoul favors holding a meeting of the six countries¡¯ foreign ministers before the end of the year. ¡°But we¡¯re not sure whether it can be held this year at all, because we don't know what the situation of the other nations is," he added.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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