By Kim Young-jin
An international consortium tasked to build two light-water reactors in North Korea earlier this decade will soon demand the Stalinist state hand over $1.89 billion to compensate for losses incurred by the failed project, an officials here said Monday.
The demand by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is the latest in a back-and-forth debate over the project once considered a sign of progress toward the North’s denuclearization. In September, Pyongyang claimed it was owed $5.8 billion for financial losses sustained during the initiative.
The wrangling also comes as part of increased regional dialogue as players try to resume long-stalled multilateral talks on Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
KEDO, comprised of South Korea, Japan and the United States, agreed in 1994 to build two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors in the North as part of a denuclearization-for-aid deal between Washington and Pyongyang. But the project fell apart in 2006 amid U.S. suspicions that the isolated state was operating a uranium-enrichment program that could provide a second path toward building nuclear weapons.
A government official said on condition of anonymity that KEDO has sent a letter to the North each year requesting it to pay for the losses incurred by its breach of the agreement.
“North Korea has given no response, and its sudden claim for compensation is completely unacceptable. KEDO plans to send an official reply in the coming days,” the official said.
The North walked out of the six-party denuclearization talks ― which also include Russia and China ― in 2009 over international sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests. Last year, it upped the ante for their resumption by revealing the uranium program and twice waging deadly attacks on the South.
Tensions have cooled somewhat since July, when the two Koreas sat down for surprise denuclearization talks that led to similar meetings between Washington and Pyongyang that aimed to resume the multilateral format.
Seoul and Washington want the North to halt the uranium program and allow for international verification of the move among other steps before coming back to the table, while Pyongyang insists the talks should start without preconditions.
Analysts are skeptical over whether the North will ever give up the weapons program that is its claim to deterrence and greatest bargaining chip. But they say regional players want to resume the talks as a way to provide stability to the economically-vibrant region.
The North, meanwhile, is seen to be using all possible means to secure aid ahead of next year, when it has pledged it will emerge as a “strong and prosperous nation.”
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