By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The United States is asking North Korea to disclose how much plutonium it has produced and how many nuclear warheads it has made, in efforts to verify the communist state's past and current nuclear activities, a diplomatic source here said Monday.
Pyongyang accepted the request in principle, the source said on condition of anonymity.
A team of U.S. officials and nuclear experts is scheduled to visit the North Korean capital Tuesday to discuss details of the North's declaration of its nuclear programs, which has stalled six-party nuclear talks for months.
The interagency team, led by Sung Kim, director of the Korean Affairs office at the U.S. State Department, arrived in Seoul Monday evening. The team is to make an overland trip by car to Pyongyang across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, a Foreign Ministry official said.
The group is expected to review a nuclear list, provided by Pyongyang, which would include the total amount of plutonium, number of nuclear warheads, operation of the 5 Megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility and other nuclear-related activities in recent years, he said.
Japan's Tokyo Shimbun said the North reported to the United States last December that it had produced about 30 kilograms of plutonium. The North said about 18 kilograms were used in developing nuclear technology, while some six kilograms were used in conducting the underground nuclear test in October 2006, the newspaper said.
The United States, however, called for a more complete and accurate declaration as it believed the North produced at least 50 kilograms of plutonium, it said.
Discussions on whether Pyongyang has fulfilled its pledge to provide a full declaration of its nuclear programs have stalled the implementation of the so-called Feb. 13 nuclear deal reached between participating nations at the six-way talks ― the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Under the pact, the North is to receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other political concessions from the five other countries in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and disclosing its nuclear programs. The North shut down key plutonium-producing facilities in Yongbyon last year but missed a Dec. 31 deadline for the promised declaration.
Reports said Washington was scaling back its demands about what North Korea to declare, following talks between American and North Korean nuclear envoys in Singapore earlier this month.
U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, agreed on a tentative deal in which the North would ``acknowledge'' concerns about its uranium enrichment program and transfer of nuclear technology to Syria in a secret side agreement with the United States, they said.
The main declaration would refer only to the acknowledged plutonium-based weapons operation, according to the reports.
However, leaders of South Korea and the United States dismissed rumors that they would lower the bar on North Korea's declaration in a joint statement at Camp David on Saturday.
``Obviously, I'm not going to accept a deal that doesn't advance the interests of the region,'' U.S. President George W. Bush said. ``The whole objective of the six-party talks and framework is to get them to disclose their weapons programs, is to get them to dismantle their plutonium processing, is to get them to talk about activities, nuclear activities.''
President Lee Myung-bak supported Bush's view, saying if North Korea's declaration or the verification is not satisfactory, it could cause ``serious problems.''