US congressional aides who visited North Korea's nuclear plant said they have a lot of information to digest before they can say how far the secretive communist country has come in its nuclear weapons development, a senior South Korean official said.
Republican aide Keith Luse and Democratic colleague Frank Jannuzi, both staffers for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with South Korean officials Monday to discuss last week's trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
"They said they cannot say that anything was proven or verified during their trip," Wi Sung-lac, head of the South Korean foreign ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, said Monday.
"They said many things were unclear and they needed more discussions and analysis before coming to their own assessment."
The visit -- by five US delegates including Luse and Jannuzi -- was the first by outsiders since the North expelled UN inspectors in late 2002. The North said it showed the team its ``nuclear deterrent'' -- though what exactly they saw still has not been made public.
The delegates, including former Los Alamos Laboratory director Sig Hecker, held discussions with North Korean nuclear scientists, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and Lieutenant General Ri Chan-bok, the North Korean military's point man at talks with the US-led UN Command in Seoul, Wi said.
"The North Koreans reiterated that they will freeze their nuclear activities only in return for compensation, and they expressed their willingness for dialogue," he said, quoting the congressional aides.
South Korea expected more information from the US delegates after they report to their superiors in Washington, Wi added.
Luse said more details would be made public at a Jan. 20 hearing of their Senate committee.
"We have had a full day of meeting with South Korean officials," Jannuzi said. "We hope that our visit here helps to continue the tradition of strong coordination between Washington and Seoul and contribute to the success of six-party talks."
Also Monday, North Korea's foreign ministry reiterated that the country was willing to freeze its nuclear activities at Yongbyon in return for oil supplies and economic aid from the US.
The US has demanded that the North begin dismantling its nuclear programs before receiving any concessions.
The crisis flared in Oct. 2002 when US officials accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal requiring the North to freeze its nuclear facilities. Washington and its allies cut off free oil shipments, also part of the 1994 accord.
North Korea responded by ejecting UN monitors and restarting a reactor at Yongbyon that generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium.
Citing unnamed US officials, The Washington Post reported the US group had been shown recently reprocessed plutonium, the fuel for nuclear weapons. Luse and Jannuzi denied the report, Wi said.
The visit came as the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are trying to arrange a new round of talks on ending the standoff over the North's nuclear program. A first round of six-nation talks ended in Beijing in August without much progress.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS