North Korea makes fuel oil demands

NORTH Korea’s top nuclear envoy has told former US officials that Pyongyang wants more than half a million tonnes of fuel oil a year in return for suspending its atomic reactor, a Japanese daily said yesterday.

Shutting down North Korea’s sole operating reactor is expected to be a key negotiating point when six-country discussions on ending the North’s nuclear weapons programme resume in Beijing on Thursday, analysts said.

The Asahi Shimbun said North Korean vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan had set out Pyongyang’s position when he met former US State Department official Joel Witt and nuclear expert David Albright in the North Korean capital last week.