North Korea, Requesting Two Reactors in Exchange for Nuclear Freeze

Quoting a foreign source in Washington, the Sankei Shimbun reported on June 1 that North Korea requested a supply of two thermoelectric power plants, which uses natural gas as fuel, during a working group meeting for the six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear arms issue held in Beijing last month,.

The newspaper added that although the U.S. declined this request, Korea, Russia, and Japan showed a positive response.

During the working group meeting, North Korea requested the supply of a thermoelectric power plant in addition to resuming construction of a light-water reactor as the next step of their intention to freeze the nuclear facilities in Youngbyun if the U.S. guarantees system security.

Regarding this matter, the U.S. has been reported to adhere to their stance of a “complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of nuclear programs (CVID)” up to now and rejected the North Korean proposal.

However, this newspaper reported that controversy is expected during the third six-way talks as Korea and Japan, whose participating enterprise that have been hit due to the suspension of the light-water reactor construction, judged this proposal as being worthy of an examination, and as Russia agreed to this proposal in the aspect of enabling export of natural gas in Siberia.

Won-Jae Park parkwj@donga.com