Six-Party Talks to Set Schedule for North Korean Denuclearization

The second phase of the sixth round of six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to report all its nuclear programs and setting a time schedule for disabling all its existing nuclear facilities began at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing at 4 p.m. on Thursday.

At the general session held on the first day that lasted about an hour, chief negotiators reported the results of five working group meetings on denuclearization, energy and economic cooperation, peace and security in Northeast Asia, and the normalization of North Korea-U.S. and North Korea-Japan relations, held in August and September.

In particular, based on what a team of U.S. officials has done at the Yongbyon nuclear facility to shut it down completely, the six nations discussed ways to disable all three of North Korea’s existing nuclear facilities, including a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor, a reprocessing facility, and a fuel fabrication plant.

The six nations are going to set a timetable on how and when North Korea should report all its nuclear programs, including some 50 to 60 kilograms of weapons–grade plutonium and its Uranium Enrichment Program (UEP).

In his opening speech, Mr. Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, the host country of the six-party talks, said, “This talk will be a crucial round in the six-party process, and the most important goal of this round of talks is to discuss and decide on the specific implementation of the next steps.”

Prior to this, North Korea and the U.S. reportedly held a bilateral talk for two days at the U.S. Embassy in China and discussed ways to provide political rewards, such as removing North Korea from America’s list of terrorist sponsoring states in return for the disablement of all its existing nuclear facilities, while North Korea talked about allegations that it is helping Syria build a nuclear program.

South Korea also held bilateral talks with North Korea, the U.S. and China on the same day.

triplets@donga.com