Atomic List Deadline Looms For North Korea

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
December 3, 2007 By Anna Fifield, in Seoul
Talks to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons will enter a crucial phase this week, as Pyongyang prepares to supply a list of all its atomic programmes and Washington offers lucrative rewards if the task is satisfactorily completed.
Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state, will fly to Pyongyang today to discuss the list with his North Korean counterparts before six-party negotiations resume in Beijing on Thursday.
North Korea is due to provide the other parties with a full list of its nuclear facilities, materials and programmes - both plutonium and uranium - and allow its Yongbyon reactor to be disabled by December 31.
If both steps are taken, the US has offered to inform Congress this month of its intention to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, triggering a 45-day notice period, the FT understands. Congress cannot veto the move.
"This is only an 'if' and it is a big 'if'," said one official with knowledge of the plan, stressing that the onus was on Pyongyang to disclose all nuclear programmes in full. "It all depends on whether there is a satisfactory declaration, and that is a tall order."
The US has also offered to remove North Korea from the Trading with the Enemy Act, a step that simply entails striking its name from the list, by the end of the year if Pyongyang sticks to its end of the deal.
Removal from the two lists has been a key North Korean demand and diplomats say Washington is committed to an "action for action" approach to denuclearisation.
"The next month is going to be a very important month," Mr Hill said last week at a forum in Seoul, adding that the list would be a key topic of discussion in Pyongyang.
Analysts say the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme have made surprisingly good progress this year, with the Yongbyon reactor first shut down and now in the process of being disabled.
A team of US-led scientists has scraped all the absorbent wood out of the cooling tower in Yongbyon and has cleaned up the contaminated cooling pond for the plutonium rods.
But the declaration is a possible stumbling block to further progress as the US has evidence North Korea has been pursuing some kind of uranium enrichment programme, but Pyongyang has always denied it.
"I will be talking about the declaration they will be providing . . . to make sure that we have a consensus on what should be in it, so that as we move into January and the next phase, there are no surprises," Mr Hill said.
He expected disabling of the reactor to be completed in December and the entire denuclearisation process by the end of 2008. While diplomats involved say they are keen to draw out a "road map" for dismantlement to be undertaken next year, one US official said that this was not likely in this round of talks as the top priority was the declaration.
 
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