NK Shuts Down Nuclear Facilities
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
North Korea has shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon as part of a disarmament deal.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry officially confirmed the shutdown of the nuclear reactor via its state-run news agency later Sunday.
``We shut down the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after we received the first shipment of heavy oil,'' a ministry spokesman told the official (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea ``has done what it should do. Now it's the time for other parties to abide by their obligations under the Feb. 13 agreement,'' Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
Previously, the U.S. State Department had said late Saturday that the North had informed it of the shutdown.
``We welcome this development and look forward to the verification and monitoring of this shutdown by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team that has arrived in North Korea,'' spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
The notification was made hours after the first shipment of 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil out of 50,000 tons arrived in North Korea in accordance with a six-party talks agreement made last February. More nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan will be held on Wednesday in Beijing to discuss disarmament after the shutdown.
The South Korean government also hailed the shutdown as a positive sign toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
``North Korea kept its promise of shutting down the nuclear facilities in return for the heavy fuel oil under the February agreement,'' a government official said. ``We welcome the action as it confirms their willingness to implement the disarmament.''
Regarding the expression ``shutdown,'' the official said that stopping operations at the nuclear facility is interpreted as part of the shutdown process under the Feb. 13 agreement.
The completion of the shutdown will take about two weeks when the IAEA inspectors officially confirm it, he added.
Christopher Hill, the top U.S. nuclear envoy, said late Sunday that the United States wants to completely disable North Korea's key nuclear facilities before the end of this year so the ``endgame'' of the prolonged nuclear dispute can begin as early next year.
``We have to kind of chart out how we are going to move forward here. We want to talk about what is a possible schedule for achieving our goals this year,'' Hill told reporters upon arrival at the Gimpo International Airport on a three-day visit.
His remarks came hours after Pyongyang told Seoul and Washington that it had halted operations of its key nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
Kim Myong-kil, deputy head of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York, on Sunday said his country is ready to take the next step, but only after the U.S. takes compensating measures, such as ``removing wider economic sanctions against Pyongyang and striking the country from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.''
In a separate interview with the Associated Press, he said, ``After the shutdown, then we will discuss about the economic sanctions lifting and removal from the terrorism list. All those things should be discussed and resolved.''
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency started verifying whether North Korea had actually shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon on Sunday morning.
''What the IAEA said was 'Our boys start verification tomorrow morning' _ which is today,'' Kyodo News Service quoted Hill as saying in the town of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he stayed before flying to Seoul.
It has taken four years and seven months for North Korea to halt reactor operations at Yongbyon since the Stalinist country started them in 2002 in a protest against the U.S. argument that the North had a uranium-based nuclear program.
The United States stopped the supply of heavy fuel oil to North Korea, promised under the Washington-Pyongyang Agreed Framework in 1994, because of the alleged uranium program. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who visited North Korea in October 2002, raised the uranium issue.
But conservatives in South Korea criticized the North for seeking to isolate the South. Pyongyang did not inform Seoul of the reactor shutdown although Washington was notified. The South has delivered oil to North Korea but it was Washington, not Seoul, that confirmed the shutdown. The North wants to hold direct military talks with U.S. excluding South Korea.