Disarmament Diplomacy

News Review

US And North Korea Resume Contacts in Uneasy Atmosphere

As reported in the last issue, on June 6 President Bush announced a resumption of contacts with North Korea on, in the President's words, "a broad agenda to include: improved implementation of the Agreed Framework relating to North Korea's nuclear activities; verifiable constraints on North Korea's missile programmes and a ban on its missile exports; and a less threatening conventional military posture." To general international relief, and particular satisfaction in South Korea, first contact was made in New York on June 13 when US Special Envoy Jack Pritchard held preliminary discussions with Li Hyong-chol, North Korea's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

A potentially major stumbling block between the two sides, however, is already casting its shadow: North Korea's demand for compensation from the US in return for delays in the construction of new nuclear reactors under the terms of the Agreed Framework. In a radio broadcast on June 18, an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson insisted: "The electricity loss from the delay in building light-water reactors should be taken up as a priority agenda [item] in the talks." The spokesperson continued with a negative interpretation of the US offer to resume talks: "We cannot but evaluate the US proposal as unilateral and conditional in its nature and hostile in its intentions. The US-proposed agenda concerns our nuclear, missile and conventional armaments, and this is all nothing but an attempt to disarm us." Responding to the compensation demand, State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher stated tersely (June 18) that "we don't see any particular basis" for the complaint.

North Korean frustration over the slow implementation of the Agreed Framework - the first light-water reactor (LWR) is now not due for delivery until 2008, five years behind the original target-date - was also clear from a government statement issued on June 6, a few hours before President Bush's announcement: "The construction of LWRs...is too much delayed and thus the implementation of the agreement has reached a serious pass... Though seven years have passed since the adoption of the agreement, the site preparation has not yet been completed, to say nothing of the ground work. ... If this issue is not solved, the DPRK will be left with no option but to restart the...graphite-moderated reactors [whose operation was suspended in 1994] for its existence..." The statement also repeated North Korea's position that full IAEA inspections in the country were conditional on progress toward implementing the Agreed Framework: "The [IAEA] inspection is unthinkable before a great deal of the LWR project is carried out." See Documents and Sources for an IAEA summary of the situation.

Responding to the statement, an unnamed US official told reports in Washington on June 6: "Delays in construction [of the new reactors] have occurred for many reasons, including lengthy negotiations with North Korea... Because of the unique nature of building light-water reactors in North Korea, and the many unknowns anticipated, a precise date for completion of the project was never fixed. A 2003 date was a target, not binding contractually or under international law."

On June 7, speaking at a press conference in Washington with South Korea's Foreign Minister, Han Seung-Soo, Secretary of State Powell gave a rather strained endorsement of the Agreed Framework:

"Question: 'Can you explain why the administration came down on the side of going forward with that agreement?"

Powell: 'Because it is an agreement and we see no reason to change our position right now. We have examined it carefully. There will be a problem in a few years time as that construction moves forward; a point will be reached when the North Koreans will have to come into compliance with IAEA requirements, and at that point we would expect them to come into compliance with their obligations before we could go even further with the reactor project. But it seemed to us at this point, after consultation with our Korean friends and Japanese friends, we should continue moving in the direction of the Agreed Framework.'"

Reports: US dismisses North Korean compensation claim, Reuters, June 6; N. Korea threatens to resume building reactors, Reuters, June 6; Transcript - Powell-S. Korean Foreign Minister remarks, Washington File, June 7; US says New York talks with N. Korea a good start, Reuters, June 13; N. Korea demands US compensation, Associated Press, June 18; North Korea dismisses offer by the US to resume talks, New York Times, June 18; US rejects N. Korea compensation, Associated Press, June 18.

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