North Korea is ready to freeze its military nuclear program, but not its "peaceful" one, Russia said yesterday, as the outlines of a deal to end a 16-month impasse in North Asia began to take shape.
During the second day of six-way talks in Beijing aimed at resolving the crisis over the North's nuclear ambitions, South Korea, backed by China and Russia, offered North Korea energy aid in exchange for freezing its weapons programs.
It was not clear which program North Korea was offering to freeze. The North has a plutonium-producing program at Yongbyon and the US says it is also enriching uranium, a program the North denies exists.
"We [Russia and China] consider North Korea's proposal on freezing military nuclear programs to be an important step and we propose that in response there could be steps taken for a meeting in terms of aid for North Korea," Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov, head of the Russian delegation, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
"China, Russia and South Korea expressed their readiness to take such steps as compensation for possible energy losses which a freezing of nuclear programs could have on its energy sector," he said.
But Russia said the US and Japan, the other two countries taking part in the talks, were not ready to take part in a compensation plan, he told reporters.
Host China also welcomed the development.
"All sides of the six-party talks welcome the DPRK's proposal to stop its nuclear program," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (
But the offer puzzled analysts because North Korea has no fully operational nuclear power plants. A five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon complex which experts believe produced weapons-grade plutonium is not connected to electric power lines.
Two larger nuclear reactors, a 50-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and a 200-megawatt reactor at nearby Taechon, were suspended at early stages of construction in 1994 because of concerns about potential misuse.
In a sign a deal was taking shape, South Korea offered to supply the energy aid to the power-starved North, South Korean negotiator Lee Soo-hyuck told reporters at the end of the second day of six-way talks in Beijing.
Pyongyang had yet to respond to the proposal, he said.
"Russia and China made clear they will join us on the energy aid," Lee said. "China supported South Korea's proposal and promised positive consideration of joining energy aid."
Lee said the six parties were also close to an agreement on setting up a working group to discuss South Korea's energy-aid-for-nuclear-freeze proposal.
"There was an agreement in principle that the specifics of freezing nuclear activities, energy aid and other corresponding measures should be discussed at the working group," he said.
Impoverished North Korea says it is developing a plutonium program at a nuclear power plant in Yongbyon that would be able to turn out weapons and has offered to freeze that in exchange for security guarantees from the US and aid.
The US says the North may already have one or two nuclear bombs and insists Pyongyang dismantle not only the plutonium development but also the suspected uranium-enrichment program.
North Korea specialist Koh Yoo-hwan of Dongkuk University in Seoul said the three countries appeared to be compensating for Washington's political difficulty in offering aid to Pyongyang.
"This energy aid was pre-arranged by South Korea, Russia and China as a means to elicit North Korea's cooperation," Koh said.
"Since the US already made clear its position that they will not reward bad behavior, it is not easy for the Americans to offer energy aid, especially considering circumstances such as the upcoming presidential election."
Officials see the meetings as fairly conciliatory so far.
"The atmosphere [yesterday] was serious and intense ... There were no arguments, and as far as I know, not even during bilaterals," Lee said, adding "the talks will continue as long as discussions are needed."
The talks are due to resume today and could run into additional days, officials have said.
The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when US officials said North Korea had admitted to a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
The North denied any such admission but has offered to freeze a plutonium-based program that it reactivated when it pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last year.
Washington sees that as merely returning to its position under an Agreed Framework that froze the program in 1994 and wants a solution that will make it more difficult for Pyongyang to renege.
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