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Clinton calls for aid to end N.Korea arms crisis
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday Washington should offer food and energy supplies to North Korea in return for access to its laboratories to help resolve a crisis over the Northâs nuclear programme. ââI think we ought to offer them a mega deal. Help with food, help with energy, help with becoming a self-sustaining economy... in return for total access to all the labs, all the sites, taking the plutonium rods out of North Korea altogether,ââ Clinton told a business forum in Hong Kong.Now why didnât we think of that? Oh yeah, we did. ââI donât believe that North Korea wants to drop a bomb on South Korea or Japan. I think what they want to do is eat and stay warm,ââ Clinton said. Among other things. His comments come after Washington proposed suspending a project to build nuclear power stations in North Korea for a year to see what comes of diplomatic attempts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes. The project is based on a 1994 pact agreed during Clintonâs administration. Under that deal, the North Koreans agreed to freeze their nuclear arms programme in return for two light-water reactors, fuel oil shipments and food supplies. The United States initially sent fuel oil to meet immediate energy needs, but stopped those deliveries a year ago after the United States announced in October last year that the North had a secret uranium enrichment project in violation of the 1994 pact. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation, the international consortium building the nuclear power stations in North Korea, is expected to officially announce a decision on the future of the light-water reactor project by November 21. See that funny dent in my scalp? Thatâs where my head keeps banging against the keyboard... Posted by: Seafarious 2003-11-06 |
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