Officials from six nations involved in talks on North Korea's denuclearization met at the inter-Korean border town here Monday to discuss ways of providing energy and economic assistance to the North under amultilateral deal signed in February.
Under the aid-for-denuclearization deal, North Korea is entitled to one million tons of heavy fuel oil once it disables its key nuclear facilities and declares all its nuclear programs, a process which Pyongyang has agreed to complete by the end of the year.
"We are gathered here to conduct the quite difficult business of providing energy and economic assistance to the DPRK," Lim Sung-nam, the South Korean chairman of the working group, said in a keynote speech, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The talks will be held until Tuesday on the South Korean side of the joint security area of Panmunjom, located inside the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas.
The working group is one of five established under the February deal. Others deal with the denuclearization of the North, the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and the normalization of Pyongyang's diplomatic ties with Washington and Tokyo.
North Korea has already shut down five nuclear facilities in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea. The countries are now trying to finalize a list of energy or economic assistance to be provided to the North.
Lim, also the deputy chief of South Korea's delegation to six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, said the North has already provided "a specific list" of energy equipment and assistance it wants to receive in exchange for disabling its key nuclear facilities and declaring all its nuclear programs by the year's end.
The road ahead could be bumpy "primarily because we'll be discussing extremely technical issues," he said, adding he hopes this week's discussions will be "guided by the spirit of compromise."
This week's talks follow a preliminary meeting between South and North Korean officials last week at the North's scenic Mount Geumgang resort, in which the North requested it be provided with equipment and technical support to repair and maintain its energy-related facilities.
South Korean officials have said that the North wishes to receive about half of the total one million tons of heavy oil promised in the February agreement in other economic and energy
assistance of the same value.
They have also noted it may take longer than a few months to complete the provision of energy and economic assistance to the North, but that Pyongyang has agreed to complete implementing its denuclearization measures by the year's end on good faith.