``If North Rejects IAEA Inspection, Light-Water Reactor Project Will Be Suspended``

Jack Pritchard, the U.S. special envoy for Korea peace talks, said on Thursday that if North Korea rejects the inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is supposed to be done in the process of delivering the core parts of the light-water reactors to North Korea, the light-water reactor project in North Korea would be suspended.

Pritchard answered as such when he was asked whether the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) would suspend the construction of light-water reactors in North Korea if North rejects the IAEA` inspection according to the Geneva agreement at the hearing of the East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee of International Relations in the House of Representatives.

Pritchard said that ``the Geneva agreement clearly states that North Korea should fulfill the obligation of NPT following the instruction of the IAEA before the core parts of light-water reactors are to be delivered and an additional construction is to be carried out.`` ``If that does not happen, there will be no additional construction. The light-water reactor project will stop until the North Koreans are in full compliance with their obligations, `` said Pritchard.

The U.S. and North Korea, through the Geneva agreement 1994, decided to carry out the IAEA`s inspection of North Korea`s past nuclear-related activities before the core parts are to be delivered.

The U.S. speculates that whether North Korea produced nuclear weapons based on plutonium, extracted more than it was reported to the IAEA in the past, will be found out through the 2-year-long inspection.

eligius@donga.com