North Korea has agreed to declare and disable all its nuclear
facilities by the end of this year, the chief US negotiator said
yesterday.
US Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill addresses a media briefing
outside the US Mission after bilateral talks with North Korea in
Geneva September 2, 2007.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said two days
of talks between the United States and North Korea in Geneva had
been "very good and very substantive" and would help improve
chances of a successful meeting later this month with Japan,
Russia, the Republic of Korea and China in six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's
nuclear weapons program and improving relations between North Korea
and other countries.
"One thing that we agreed on is that North Korea will provide a
full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable
their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007," Hill told
reporters.
Hill said the declaration will also include uranium enrichment
programs, which the United States fears could be used to make
nuclear weapons.
He said he and Kim Gye-gwan, the head of North Korean
delegation, had discussed the full range of issues in their two
days of talks at the US and North Korea missions to UN offices in
Geneva.
Kim did not comment immediately to reporters outside the North
Korea mission, but said he might make a statement later.
Hill said earlier yesterday that improving US relations with
North Korea will depend on other progress in the talks, saying it
"is a relationship that we will continue to try to build step by
step with the understanding that we're not going to have a
normalized relationship until we have a denuclearized North
Korea."
"To the extent that we can move quickly to denuclearization, we
can move quickly to normalization," he added.
Hill said both sides also discussed what needs to be done for
Pyongyang to be removed from the US list of state sponsors of
terrorism.
He said they also had a good discussion of what North Korea
wants to achieve and how it can improve relations with Japan.
He said he expected the next full session of the six-party talks
would be held in mid-September and that it would produce a "more
detailed implementation plan for 'disablement' of Pyongyang's
nuclear facilities."
The meeting in Geneva was part of a flurry of "working group"
sessions called for in February's six-party accord in which North
Korea agreed to disable its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and
declare and eventually dismantle all its nuclear activities.
In exchange, the economically struggling North Korea will
receive oil and other aid. The US, as part of the agreement,
promised to begin the process of removing the country from the
terrorism list and work toward full diplomatic relations.
(China Daily via agencies September 3, 2007)
