US to Continue Energy Aid for N. Korea

The United States Monday said it won't stop providing heavy fuel oil to North Korea under an aid-for-denuclearization deal despite North Korea's recent move to reverse the disablement of its nuclear reactor.

"We're not there at this point yet, but again, we're going to be having discussions with our allies in the six-party framework and see where we go from here," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.

Reports said South Korea, the U.S. and other participants in the multilateral nuclear talks are considering discontinuing the energy supply, a major part of the nuclear deal, because of the North's efforts to restart its disabled nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, north of its capital, Pyongyang.

North Korea has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to remove seals and cameras on its nuclear facilities amid concerns that Pyongyang might expel IAEA inspectors from Yongbyon just like it did in 2002 after the outbreak of a fresh nuclear crisis involving the North's alleged uranium-based nuclear program.

The first nuclear crisis ended with a Geneva framework agreement in 1994 under which the North was supposed to freeze its Yongbyon reactor in return for two light-water reactors and interim energy aid.

Wood said U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Chinese President Hu Jintao Sunday over the phone "about the issue and they both agreed they were going to work hard to try to make sure that the North continues on the path that is established by the six-party framework."

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