By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
South Korea is planning to sell steel products which were supposed to be offered to North Korea in return for denuclearization, according to a report Sunday.
Sources said the government is considering the sale of 3,000 tons after the secretive state escalated tensions on the peninsula by conducting an underground nuclear test and firing short-range missiles last week, according to the Yonhap News.
``Given that North Korea conducted the nuclear test, we cannot send the steel products,'' an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was quoted as saying. ``Besides the storage problem, we cannot keep them any longer because of rust.''
It costs 500,000 won ($399) a day to store the products, which were produced last October, according to another government source.
He said the government will likely sell the steel through a public auction.
The South planned to send steel as agreed during the six-party talks in February 2003 in return for the North's promise to dismantle nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.
The Feb. 13 agreement also called for 1 million tons of crude oil.
Seoul had considered an appropriate date to offer the aid but delayed the schedule as North Korea and other nations involved in the six-party talks failed to narrow differences over ways to disable nuclear facilities in a verifiable way.
The communist state has escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula since it launched a long-range rocket on April 5, despite repeated warnings from the international community.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the rocket launch, citing its violation of Resolution 1718 but the North conducted the nuclear test a month later and fired a series of short-range missiles.
The Security Council is reportedly preparing a stronger resolution to sanction the North.