By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
Did another ``agreed framework in Geneva'' appear under which the United States tries get rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons program?
The question is easily raised as North Korea agreed to make a full declaration of all its nuclear programs and disable them by the end of the year.
``One thing that we agreed on is that DPRK (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,'' Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator to the nuclear talks, told reporters Sunday after two-day talks with his North Korean counterpart.
The declaration and the disablement is a second phase of the nuclear disarmament of the six-party talks as North Korea has already implemented the first phase of the shutdown of a key nuclear reactor in Yongbyon under an agreement reached on Feb. 13, 2007.
Under the deal, North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in return for aid and security guarantees, particularly the normalization of Pyongyang-Washington relations.
In response to the Sunday agreement, Seoul diplomats thought the nature of the six-party talks may change because the Geneva agreement dealt with the core issues of the multilateral talks: the declaration of the nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, and the relations normalization.
They expected the six-party talks, slated for mid-September in Beijing, will deal with the issues again and will likely produce a statement on them.
``The U.S.-North Korea agreement clearly showed the changing role and nature of the six-party talks,'' an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, requesting anonymity.
Another official said it is very good for the six-party talks' efficient operation if the United States and North Korea discuss sensitive issues before the talks.
Meanwhile, the deal also shows different position of the United States toward North Korea. The administration of George W. Bush didn't like the agreed framework in Geneva, which ended the first North Korea's nuclear crisis in 1994, and preferred not to have bilateral talks with North Korea.
Under the deal in 1994, North Korea agreed to freeze nuclear facilities in return for light-water reactor.
The two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan are involved in the six-nation talks.
Bush sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il through Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state, to have negotiations right after the nuclear weapons' experiment by North Korea in October, 2006, according to Japanese monthly magazine, named ``central public opinion.'' Kim said he also wants to improve relations with the United States in a reply to Bush, the magazine reported.
In the meantime, Hill also said that the talks would continue under the six-party framework that addressed the nuclear issue since August 2003.
``Of course, we will have to work out some of the details of this in the six-party process… but we had a very good understanding of this today and an understanding that we need to pick up the pace and get through this phase in 2007,'' Hill said.
The chief U.S. negotiator said the six-party process offers North Korea some benefits such as a removal from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terror. North Korea has long wanted to be removed from the list because countries on the list have heavy restrictions on trade.