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Nuclear envoys reach 'comprehensive' NKorea deal: US
Beijing (AFP) Sept 30, 2007 Envoys from six nations struck an agreement Sunday on the next phase of ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which the United States hailed as comprehensive and detailed. The provisional agreement will now go back to the governments for approval, and negotiators will resume their talks here in a few days so the deal can be sealed, the US and other envoys said. No specifics of the agreement were released, although the negotiations were focused on devising a plan for North Korea to disable its key nuclear facilities and declare all its atomic programmes. "The joint statement was very comprehensive," US negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters, referring to the agreement outlined by China, which is hosting the talks. "China put together a very nice joint statement. There are lots of details. It is very useful." A South Korean official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday's statement referred to disabling the North's main nuclear facility at Yongbyon and two other sites by the end of this year. They were simply shut down in July, but disablement is regarded as a major step further because once that is done, the North would require months to get them operational again in order to resume any weapons programme. The latest round of the long-running talks -- involving both Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia -- was originally due to end Sunday after four days of meetings. Chinese envoy Wu Dawei said the talks had only been suspended for two days so that each nation could formally approve the joint statement, according to a notice on China's foreign ministry website. "This was an important meeting in the process of the six-party talks... we had full and meaningful discussions and reached an important consensus," Wu said. Hill said that on Saturday night he had not been expecting the Chinese side to be able to broker such an agreement, and he was pleasantly surprised by the joint statement. He said he felt it was important for him to go through the deal personally with his superior, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and others back in Washington. "We are really into the nuts and bolts of denuclearization. So I really thought it was necessary to go back and walk people through it rather than doing it on the phone," he said. South Korean envoy Chun Yung-Woo also gave a positive assessment. "Many countries exercised the spirit of making significant compromises. Especially, North Korea made lots of concessions. They were enthusiastically willing to reach an agreement this time." None of the envoys disclosed the details of the joint statement. The envoys were working off the blueprint of a landmark deal reached in February that would see the North abandon its nuclear weapons programmes in return for fuel aid, security guarantees and diplomatic concessions. Under the first phase, North Korea in July shut Yongbyon and four other related facilities, and allowed inspectors from the United Nations' atomic watchdog back into the country. In return, the first tranches of a promised one million tonnes of fuel aid were delivered and North Korea began diplomatic talks with rivals the United States and Japan. South Korea and China have so far delivered a combined 100,000 tonnes of fuel oil while US President George W. Bush on Saturday gave the go-ahead for another tranche of 50,000 tonnes to be sent to the impoverished country. However many other hurdles remain that could derail the extremely complex negotiations, which began in 2003 and failed to prevent North Korea carrying out its first atomic weapons test in October last year. The North has repeatedly demanded that Washington remove its designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and cancel sanctions applied under the US Trading with the Enemy Act, as per the February deal. The United States has maintained that such bold moves would come only after North Korea moves further down the path toward disarmament. Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
US hopes for NKorea nuclear road map as talks resume
Beijing (AFP) Sept 27, 2007US envoy Christopher Hill said talks on disarming North Korea which opened Thursday could produce a road map for declaring and disabling its nuclear programmes as early as this weekend. |
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