If US Participates in 2 Mil.-kW Energy Aid

By Ryu Jin
Korea Times Correspondent

BEIJING - North Korea will freeze all of its nuclear facilities and reprocessed nuclear materials if the United States it participates in the proposed provision of 2,000,000-kilowatt energy aid, a North Korean official said on Friday.

``If the U.S. takes corresponding measures, we can freeze all of our nuclear facilities and reprocessed nuclear materials,’’ Hyon Hak-pong, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation said in a press briefing.

The corresponding measures includes the U.S.’ taking North Korea out of its list of terrorist-sponsoring countries and lifting economic sanction that was imposed on the North for the past decades.

``If the conditions were met, we will no longer produce, test or transfer nuclear weapons,’’ he told reporters.

The U.S., in the meantime, said in a separate news conference that the third round of six-party talks produced no breakthrough.

The U.S. does not want to take part in the time-consuming work needed to draw up a joint statement, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

``Results have to be described as mixed so far,’’ he said. ``And there are no breakthroughs.’’

He explained that the North Korean delegates called the U.S. proposal ``constructive’’ and also said Pyongyang was taking it into careful consideration.

But the problem, he stressed, is that they don’t admit to having a highly enriched uranium (HEU) program.

South Korea’s chief negotiator Lee Soo-hyuck, however, described the third round of talks as ``constructive, practical and substantial.’’

Lee said the six nations agreed to convene working-level talks as soon as possible and were trying to set a date for the fourth round of talks. He, however, added most parties wanted the results be contained in a ``chairman’s statement’’ rather than a ``joint press statement.’’

On the eve of the close of the multilateral dialogue, South and North Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia and China made late-night efforts to draft their joint statement, in which the fourth round of talks will likely be timetabled.

``All the parties involved reached a crucial political consensus that a verifiable nuclear freeze should be the first step toward the fundamental goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula,’’ Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in a media briefing.

Given some contentious issues that still remain, the statement is expected to be a less binding ``chairman’s statement’’ containing just several principles in abstract terms such as the fundamental goal of the talks.

South Korea and China wanted to produce a ``joint press statement’’ _ an upgraded form of document from the one adopted in the last round under the name of a chairman’s statement.

In what could be called ``substantial progress’’ of the four-day dialogue, the six nations agreed that a nuclear freeze will precede a full de-nuclearization, and had in-depth discussions on the freeze and corresponding measures.

They also reached consensus that North Korea be given energy aid and security guarantees as a reward and the next round of talks and working-group meetings will be convened for further discussions on each other’s proposals.

``Another round of talks, as well as a couple of working-group meetings before that, are inevitable because the proposals made by key parties were too complex to discuss completely at this round,’’ the source said on condition of anonymity.

The third round of talks is likely to be considered a success with some ``tangible results’’ if things go as predicted, South Korean officials said. At least, archrivals North Korea and the U.S. proposed their own packages of offers for the first time in the 20-month-long standoff.

But there has also been some headwind hindering these initial difficult steps, such as the U.S. hardliners’ alleged efforts in Washington to influence the Beijing talks across the Pacific.

A senior U.S. official told a news agency early Friday morning (local time) that North Korea ``threatened to carry out nuclear testing’’ during the ongoing talks, which later proved to be an unfair remark ``taken out of context,’’ according to sources involved in the talks.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr