North Korea gets oil for reactor promise
Sunday, 15 July 2007
PYONGYANG, (North Korea) July14 (Agencies): UN inspectors arrived in North Korea Saturday to monitor the communist country's long-anticipated promise to scale back its nuclear weapons program, while the top US nuclear envoy said he expected Pyongyang's reactor to be shut down in a matter of daysAn initial shipment of oil aid arrived hours earlier Saturday, in return for Pyongyang's pledge to close down its main nuclear reactor. The move would be the North's first step in nearly five years toward the de-nuclearization of the peninsula.
The 10-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was heading directly to Yongbyon, about 60 miles northeast of the capital, to begin monitoring the shutdown.
"We are going directly to the nuclear site at Yongbyon," IAEA team chief Adel Tolba told broadcaster APTN outside the Pyongyang airport. Footage showed dozens of cardboard boxes being loaded onto the back of two trucks.
Tolba said the team would stay in North Korea as long as needed to complete its work.
After years of tortuous negotiations and delays - during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense - the reclusive communist regime said earlier this month that once it received the oil shipment, it would consider halting its reactor.
North Korea did not give any timetable for starting the shutdown but top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said it would happen over the next few days.
Hill also said he expected the North to submit a list of its nuclear facilities within months, as was agreed to in February's round of talks.
The South Korean tanker No. 9 Han Chang, carrying 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil, arrived Saturday at the North's northeastern port of Sonbong, and the oil was being unloaded, a Unification Ministry official said. The South Korean official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Saturday's delivery was part of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil the North has been promised in exchange for shutting down the Yongbyon reactor. Pyongyang eventually will receive 1 million tons of oil for dismantling its nuclear program.
After the IAEA team installs monitoring equipment, personnel will remain at Yongbyon to ensure the reactor remains shut down, said a diplomat familiar with North Korea's file at the IAEA.
North Korea agreed earlier this year to shut down its reactor and take other steps toward disarmament in exchange for the oil and other financial and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The agreement eased a standoff that began in October 2002, when the US said North Korean officials had admitted during meetings in Pyongyang to having a secret uranium enrichment program. Washington said that violated a 1994 agreement for the North's disarmament, and a month later halted oil shipments under that deal.
The North reacted by expelling IAEA monitors on New Year's Eve, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting the reactor.
Since then, North Korea has occasionally shut down the reactor to remove fuel rods and extract plutonium - and is believed to have harvested enough to construct at least a dozen atomic bombs.
The North set off an underground test explosion in October, leading to intensified international efforts to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's arms program.
When it does act to shut down the reactor again, the North will term it simply a suspension of operations - a move that could be easily reversed, as it was in 2002.
But Hill said Friday that Washington hoped to quickly move beyond the mere freeze of the reactor and dismantle the program by year's end.
The 10-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was heading directly to Yongbyon, about 60 miles northeast of the capital, to begin monitoring the shutdown.
"We are going directly to the nuclear site at Yongbyon," IAEA team chief Adel Tolba told broadcaster APTN outside the Pyongyang airport. Footage showed dozens of cardboard boxes being loaded onto the back of two trucks.
Tolba said the team would stay in North Korea as long as needed to complete its work.
After years of tortuous negotiations and delays - during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense - the reclusive communist regime said earlier this month that once it received the oil shipment, it would consider halting its reactor.
North Korea did not give any timetable for starting the shutdown but top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said it would happen over the next few days.
Hill also said he expected the North to submit a list of its nuclear facilities within months, as was agreed to in February's round of talks.
The South Korean tanker No. 9 Han Chang, carrying 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil, arrived Saturday at the North's northeastern port of Sonbong, and the oil was being unloaded, a Unification Ministry official said. The South Korean official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Saturday's delivery was part of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil the North has been promised in exchange for shutting down the Yongbyon reactor. Pyongyang eventually will receive 1 million tons of oil for dismantling its nuclear program.
After the IAEA team installs monitoring equipment, personnel will remain at Yongbyon to ensure the reactor remains shut down, said a diplomat familiar with North Korea's file at the IAEA.
North Korea agreed earlier this year to shut down its reactor and take other steps toward disarmament in exchange for the oil and other financial and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The agreement eased a standoff that began in October 2002, when the US said North Korean officials had admitted during meetings in Pyongyang to having a secret uranium enrichment program. Washington said that violated a 1994 agreement for the North's disarmament, and a month later halted oil shipments under that deal.
The North reacted by expelling IAEA monitors on New Year's Eve, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting the reactor.
Since then, North Korea has occasionally shut down the reactor to remove fuel rods and extract plutonium - and is believed to have harvested enough to construct at least a dozen atomic bombs.
The North set off an underground test explosion in October, leading to intensified international efforts to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's arms program.
When it does act to shut down the reactor again, the North will term it simply a suspension of operations - a move that could be easily reversed, as it was in 2002.
But Hill said Friday that Washington hoped to quickly move beyond the mere freeze of the reactor and dismantle the program by year's end.