US urges North Korea to move quickly on nuke deal

SEOUL  ( 2008-04-01 20:54:56 ) : 

US negotiator Christopher Hill, who arrived on Tuesday in South Korea to discuss ways to restart stalled nuclear talks with North Korea, urged the communist state to move 'very quickly' to seal a deal.
"Obviously we are getting to the point where we need to make some progress very quickly," he told reporters at the airport, when asked about delays in the North's promised declaration of all atomic programmes and activities.
Hill said no candidate in the upcoming US presidential election "has suggested they are interested in giving the DPRK (North Korea) a better deal than the one we put on the table.
"So I would say, from the DPRK's point of view, it's time to settle now."
A six-nation denuclearisation deal, involving the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, offers the North energy aid and major diplomatic and security benefits in return for full denuclearisation.
But the deal has stalled over the declaration, which was due to be handed over by the end of last year.
The North says it submitted the document last November. But the United States says it has not fully accounted for a suspected secret uranium enrichment weapons programme or for alleged nuclear proliferation to Syria.
Hill said the North had not submitted a declaration last year. "They showed us some research materials, research reference materials. It's very clear that it's not a complete and correct declaration."
Hill said his meeting last month with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan in Geneva had made some progress and there had been subsequent indirect contacts.
"I would say there was some progress but it doesn't really mean anything until we actually get a declaration."
Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Hill has already confronted Pyongyang with alleged evidence of its nuclear links to Syria.
It said he handed over a list of North Korean officials and engineers said to be involved in the technology transfer during an earlier meeting with Kim, who has denied any knowledge of the list.
The South's foreign ministry declined comment on the Chosun report.
The North insists it has no covert uranium programme and says it never transferred atomic technology to Syria. It has threatened to slow down ongoing work to disable its plutonium-producing plants if the deadlock continues.
Hill will hold a dinner meeting late Tuesday with his counterpart Chun Yung-Woo. He is scheduled to meet Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-Rak and Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-Joon on Wednesday, and then head to Indonesia on Thursday.

US denies NKorean charges on denuclearization

 

 

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday denied charges it was failing to live up to its part of six-country deal aimed at North Korea's denuclearization.
"The US has met and is meeting its commitments," Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, told reporters when asked to comment on the charges.
A North Korean newspaper blamed Washington for the deadlocked demilitarization deal by criticizing its failure to start the process of removing Pyongyang from its list of state terrorism sponsors.
"As part of the February 13 agreement, the United States agreed to begin the process of removing the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism," he said, reading a statement.
Under a breakthrough six-nation deal reached in February last year, North Korea, which tested an atom bomb in 2006, receives badly needed aid and security guarantees in return for disarmament.
But the hardline communist state missed a December 31 deadline to disable its main atomic facilities and give a full declaration of all nuclear programs, as required under the accord.
In response to the disablement and declaration, the negotiating partners -- South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- were to supply one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.
The United States was also to start the process of removing the North from its terrorism list, which blocks access to bilateral economic aid and loans from international financial institutions.
"We also agreed to advance the process of terminating an application of the Trading with the Enemy Act to North Korea," Gallegos added.
"Criteria for removing a country's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and lifting the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act are set forth in US law," he said.
"US action related to the terrorism designation and the Trading with the Enemy Act application are dependent on North Korea's fulfillment of the requirements of US law and its progress on addressing concerns on a nuclear issue and meeting its denuclearization commitments," he said.
"We're going to continue working with our close allies, Japan and South Korea, and our partners China and Russia as we urge North Korea to deliver a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs," he said.