At the North Korea Nuclear Weapons Six Party Talks, the Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill stated that North Korea have agreed to denuclearize all nuclear programs and declare on the list to report by the end of this year. As a result of the recent announcement by Christopher Hill, much is anticipated from the upcoming Six Party Talks.
After finishing up the Six Party Talks’ working group for Normalization of DPRK-US Relations held in Geneva, Switzerland, Christopher Hill stated that, “One thing that we agreed on is that the D.P.R.K. will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007 (New York Times, September 3, 2007).”
Denuclearization by the end of this year
One of the most notable statements made by Christopher Hill was the part about “denuclearization by the end of this year.”
With the initial phrase of February 13 Agreement wrapping up and as the next phrase of Denuclearization approaches, North Korea has obliged to the deadline suggested by the U.S. and agreed to the specific schedules, which implies that the North Korea denuclearization roadmap is processing in accelerated speed.
At the same time, Christopher Hill claimed that, “We will have a declaration in time to disable what needs to be disabled. For example, the Yongbyon reactor would have to be included.” (New York Times, September 3, 2007)
One of the two phrases of the Denuclearization roadmap includes “Denuclearization” which disables completely all the nuclear facilities in North Korea. Last month at Six Party Talks’ working group for Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula held in Shenyang, China there has been discussions on eliminating one of the core facilities for the nuclear reactors, the driving gear for the control rod.
US-North Korea have agreed to accomplish their mission of “Denuclearization by the end of the year”. However, there are still many loopholes. In particular, North Korea has requested a provision of light water reactors in respect to their Yongbyun nuclear programs and facilities. The repercussions of the agreement of denuclearization must still be waited to see.
Consequently, the Six Party Talks being held at the middle of September could face some difficulties regarding yet another obstacle to the full denuclearization of North Korean facilities.
All nuclear weapons to be declared
Alongside the disablement project on North Korean nuclear facilities, another pivot point is whether North Korea possesses the enriched uranium program and existing nuclear weapons is included on the list.
At this conference, United States and North Korea seem to have come to an agreement regarding the UEP issue. North Korea stated that they will clarify the declaration process without additional conditions attached to the dialogue set from Six Party Talks’ working group for Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula held in Shenyang, China.
Christopher Hill stated that, “Two sides had had very good and very substantive talks.”
Upon the question of, UEP, he answered that all the nuclear programs to be declared. Whether the list will include the original nuclear programs and extracted plutonium or not is still not resolved.
As it has been reiterated by North Korea, the general consensus among the experts indicates that North Korea probably did not include the original nuclear programs on the list of items to report. While nuclear programs denuclearization could be yielded in order to achieve economic and political leverage, North Korea would be reluctant to reveal the existing nuclear weapons, which are for the sake of the security
Eliminated from the list of state sponsor of terrorism and terminate the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act
The reason why North Korea had easily agreed to the denuclearization and complete declaration of all nuclear programs condition is because North Korea was recently taken out of the list of state sponsor of terrorism and terminates the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act.
In response to the question of whether U.S. has agreed to give specific commitment regarding the elimination of North Korea from the list of state sponsor of terrorism and terminate the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act, Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s foreign minister stated that, “In order to create a peaceful coexistence, we are creating a systematic, legal structure by changing the negative political stance that U.S. had towards us.”
Last month, 31st, President Bush told the reporters in Asia-Pacific that he has already made my decision. This implied the changing U.S. policy which also impended the agreements to incur from both sides. This agreement indicated a favorable response from North Korea to the demands asked by the U.S.
In the same vein, U.S. is relating the list of state sponsor of terrorism and terminating the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act to the Japanese abductees’ incident. The Japan-North Korea working group meeting, which is to be held on 5th-6th this month, is anticipated to become the turning point in the policy.
On the other hand, while the Normalization Meeting contained rather optimistic notes and incidents, which subsequently rose expectations regarding the denuclearization issue of North Korea. However, it is too early to make any rash conclusions for North Korea can always eat its words and turn around.
Experts predict that it is still difficult to say for certain whether the Denuclearization project will be accomplished, given that there are only four months left. Even if the denuclearization is to be achieved, experts are predicting a quick turn-around of events in the beginning of next year.
