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Participants of six-party talks in Beijing on Tuesday engaged in vigorous debate over a draft verification protocol prepared by China, the chair country, but no conclusion was reached. The draft contains specifics about the subject, method, objects and timeline of verification.
Meanwhile, the Seoul delegation disclosed the plan at the plenary session on Monday, saying unless the North shows a "forward-looking" attitude toward stipulating the collection of nuclear samples, the supply of heavy oil to Pyongyang slated to be completed by March could be suspended.
Economic and energy aid to North Korea equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy oil at the moment covers materials corresponding to 350,000 tons and 150,000 tons each of heavy oil. In current prices, they are worth W280 billion (US$1=W1,448), accounting for about 10 percent of the North's annual foreign currency revenues. The proposal aims at securing solid verification with this lever. It seems to have taken into account both the North's urgent need for energy during the winter and a determination to wrest the bargaining chips out of Pyongyang's hands.
But it remains to be seen whether other participants will go along with the proposal. South Korean chief delegate Kim Sook claimed the U.S. and Japan agree. There is criticism that Seoul's proposal breaches an earlier agreement on grounds that heavy oil support is a matter linked not with verification but the disablement now underway. But a government official said, "North Korea violated the agreement first when it suspended disablement and reversed the process in August because its removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism was being delayed."
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