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Momentum Builds on N. Korea Nuke Crisis
Efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as the United States and Asian allies met in Seoul to forge a common stance ahead of crucial six-nation talks. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Japanese Foreign Ministry Director General Mitoji Yabunaka arrived in Seoul on Sunday to hammer out details with their South Korean counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck. The United States, Japan and South Korea agree that North Korea’s alleged uranium-based atomic weapons program must be addressed in the upcoming negotiations. But South Korea and Japan have recently on North Korea’s offer to freeze its nuclear activities as a first step to resolving the standoff, in return for economic concessions from the United States. But Washington has demanded that North Korea first start dismantling its nuclear programs.
Looks like Japan is waffling a little.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that any North Korean nuclear freeze must also allow inspections. "On the assumption that nuclear inspections should follow, North Korea’s freeze of its nuclear weapons programs must be the first step toward the ultimate abolition of them, including the one based on highly enriched uranium," Ban told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency during a trip to Saudi Arabia.
So they accepted our position on the uranium. Good.
Earlier Sunday in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said "everything depends" on North Korea at the upcoming talks. "On the one hand, they could break down in a day," she said of the talks. "On the other, in a best-case scenario, North Korea would acknowledge possessing enriched uranium, agree to give up all its nuclear activities and shoot Kimmie invite inspections." North Korea’s alleged uranium-based nuclear program could be a key stumbling block in the Beijing talks. The nuclear crisis flared in late 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea acknowledged having the program in violation of a 1994 agreement. North Korea has since denied having a secret uranium program, in addition to its plutonium-based one, and on Saturday called the U.S. accusation a "whopping lie."
Which is tantamount to KCNA admitting that it’s true.
Some experts believe, however, that Pyongyang’s denial has been undercut by recent disclosures that the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had assisted the communist state’s uranium program.
As just one example.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-02-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=26717