North Korea wants rewards for nuclear freeze

NORTH KOREA yesterday poured cold water on a US proposal for a step-by-step resolution to a crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms programs, saying only a simultaneous package deal could solve the impasse.

In a statement issued as the United States was working to coax Pyongyang to join nuclear talks, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the communist state would only come to the table if there was some initial aid-for-disarmament deal.

“What is clear is that in no case the DPRK would freeze its nuclear activities unless it is rewarded,” said a statement issued by the North’s KCNA news agency.

The English-language statement said North Korea insisted on a package deal to solve the row, and that reports of a US plans for a phased resolution process were “greatly disappointing”.

North Korea would turn out for talks if the US accepted a “first-phase” deal under which the communist state would freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for energy aid and other concessions from Washington and regional powers.

“The resumption of the six-way talks in the future entirely depends on whether an agreement will be reached on the DPRK-proposed first-phase step or not,” it said. DPRK are the initials for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Measures such as the US delisting the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor, lift of the political, economic and military sanctions and blockade and energy aid including the supply of heavy fuel oil and electricity by the US and neighbouring countries should be taken in exchange for the DPRK’s freeze of nuclear activities,” it said.

“This would lay a foundation for furthering the six-way talks,” it said.

The United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia are trying to convene a second round of six-way nuclear talks with North Korea to follow an inconclusive first round held in August.

A new proposal worked out by the United States, South Korea and Japan last week calls for dismantling the North Korean program in an “effective, verifiable and irreversible way.” It rejects Pyongyang’s demand for simultaneous actions to solve the crisis in favour of “coordinated steps” over time.

The United States rejects simultaneous concessions because Pyongyang violated a 1994 agreement not to pursue a nuclear weapons program in exchange for oil aid and help in developing a civilian atomic facility.

The US-South Korean-Japanese proposal has been sent to China to be sent on to Pyongyang.

“According to what is now afloat and what we hear, the US (stand) is greatly disappointing us,” said the North Korean spokesman.

He did not state explicitly whether China had presented the proposal to North Korea. “It is unthinkable for us to allow ourselves to be disarmed believing in the lukewarm commitment of the US, the hostile partner,” it said.