North Korea has offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in exchange for open support at the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, a Japanese daily said on Sunday. Citing Russian government sources, the Tokyo Shimbun report said Moscow and Pyongyang had been in secret talks since 2002 over a plan for Russia to import the uranium and enrich it before selling it on as nuclear fuel to China and Vietnam, in what the sources said would be a highly profitable venture.
The North Korean government has recently shown a positive attitude toward the idea, but introduced a requirement for back-up at the stalled nuclear talks, which may resume in the next few weeks. The United States, Japan, South Korea and China are also involved in the six-way discussions aimed at persuading the North to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
After North Korea shocked the region by conducting a nuclear test in October, the United Nations passed a resolution barring trade with Pyongyang in dangerous weapons. Russia would therefore need to guarantee any uranium it imported from North Korea would be used for peaceful purposes, the paper said. |
