North Korean nuclear talks ‘at a deadlock’
Chief US delegate, Christopher Hill, said no progress was made during a 90-minute meeting yesterday because Pyongyang was demanding that it get a reactor before dismantling its nuclear programme.
“We’re in a bit of a standoff at this point,” he said.
North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong said: “The basic stumbling block has to do with the issue of providing a light-water reactor.”
The head of Japan’s delegation, Kenichiro Sasae, called the situation “extremely difficult” and said the negotiations were at a “deadlock.”
“There is no prospect for the reaching of an agreement,” he said.
Delegates said the talks would continue.
The United States has said such a reactor is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation’s history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The North was promised two such reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are believed to be less easily diverted for weapons use.
Hyun said: “Providing a light-water reactor is a matter of principle for building trust. The United States says it cannot give us a light-water reactor no matter what. It is telling us to give up the nuclear (program) first without doing its part.
“This is a problem related to the United States’ political will to get rid of its hostile policy toward us and peacefully coexist.”
But he added his government still hoped to “solve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue.”
The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees and free electricity from the South in exchange for scrapping its nuclear weapons programme.
None of the countries at the talks, which also include Russia and South Korea, have offered to foot the $2 billion (€1.64bn) to $3bn (€2.45bn) cost of building a reactor, which could take 10 years to complete.
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