By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Chief nuclear envoys from the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia will hold a fresh round of talks aimed at abolishing North Korea's nuclear weapons program Dec. 8, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Monday.
The forthcoming talks will focus on finalizing a protocol to verify North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs and materials made earlier this year, ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters.
South Korea was preparing to send 3,000 tons of steel pipes to North Korea as part of a disarmament-for-assistance deal reached last year, said Moon.
There was a proposal from China, the host nation of the six-way denuclearization talks, and South Korea accepted it, the spokesman said.
``The government plans to provide North Korea with the steel pipes as soon as related administrative procedures are completed,'' he said. ``The shipment will be made soon, as a schedule on the next round of six-party talks is to be announced soon.''
Under the so-called Feb. 13 deal, North Korea is supposed to receive one million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other political concessions from the five other countries, in return for disabling its nuclear facilities and programs.
The four, except for Japan, have shipped nearly 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid to the North. Seoul, which chairs a six-party working group for energy assistance, has provided about 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and 66,000 tons of energy-related materials or equipment to Pyongyang.
South Korea suspended delivery of the steel pipes last month amid a deadlock over the establishment of a verification protocol.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made it clear that the aim of the upcoming nuclear talks would be an agreement on the verification of North Korean disarmament steps.
``We expect that there will be a push to finalize the verification protocol,'' Rice told reporters en route to Washington, D.C. aboard Air Force One from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru.
The verification protocol should be robust enough to make certain that six-party participants are dealing with all of North Korea's nuclear programs, she said.
North Korea agreed to the protocol last month after the Bush administration removed the North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after a month-long protest, including rebuilding the Yongbyon plutonium-producing plant. But the six parties have yet to sign the protocol.
Pyongyang subsequently resumed the process of dismantling its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and granted access to nuclear inspectors. The International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea has removed about 60 percent of spent fuel rods at the reactor.