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Plants are holding up six-way talks: US Congressman

North Korea still wants to retain its nuclear power plants, a major sticking point in six-way nuclear disarmament talks, a US Congressman said yesterday after a visit to the communist state.

James Leach, a Republican from Iowa who traveled to Pyongyang last week, said the issue would be time-consuming as the US still distrusts North Korea's nuclear activities.

"North Korea clearly at this time wants to retain the right to have nuclear programs of one type or another," Leach told a press conference in Seoul.

dismantling

Citing a track record of Pyongyang's violations of nuclear safeguards, Washington rejected the North Korean demand at the latest six-party talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

"This issue of trust is very large. It will take some time to unfold," said Leach, who finished a four-day visit to North Korea with California Democrat Tom Lantos on Saturday.

Leach said he had met with senior Pyongyang officials, including chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan, who made it clear that North Korea should be allowed light water reactors for electricity.

The reactors should have been built by a US-led consortium by 2003 to replace North Korea's existing graphite-moderated reactors, which can produce weapons-grade plutonium, under the defunct 1994 nuclear agreement.

Their construction, however, has been suspended for years amid the nuclear standoff.

Leach said "there was a notification that they are proceeding with their ... graphite facilities" during talks with Kim Kye-gwan in Pyongyang.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported yesterday that a US spy satellite showed North Korea was continuing to build the Soviet-era reactors at Yongbyon and Taechon.

The construction was believed to be still in the stage of leveling the land but will "negatively affect North Korea" ahead of six-nation talks on stemming Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, a Japanese government source told the daily.

nuclear standoff

The nuclear standoff flared up in 2002 with the US accusing North Korea of developing a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of the 1994 pact.

Pyongyang has denied the US charges but declared in February this year that it had already built nuclear bombs.

Since 2003, both Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China have held talks to disarm North Korea in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits and security guarantees.

A fourth round of talks ended without tangible accords early last month.

The talks, which should have resumed in the week of Aug. 29, are expected to restart in the week beginning Sept. 12, following a delay demanded by North Korea.

"If one is an optimist, one might be very hopeful that the principles [on how to resolve the nuclear issue] would be agreed upon at the very next round of talks," Leach said. "I do not rule out optimism."

Lantos also expressed cautious optimism Saturday.

"We are optimistic, but we are optimistic in a cautious fashion," he told a briefing upon arrival in Beijing from North Korea.
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