Negotiators from six nations agreed on Saturday on steps to verify North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, opening the final phase in tortuous efforts to rid the North of nuclear weapons.
The agreement, reached after three days of talks, requires North Korea to finish disabling its main nuclear facility by the end of October. Meanwhile the US, China and the other three nations taking part would complete promised deliveries of fuel oil and other economic aid.
Beyond that, the envoys agreed to a robust verification team of experts who will visit North Korean nuclear facilities, review its documents and interview its technical experts, China’s envoy Wu Dawei (武大偉) read out from a press communique at the end of the meeting.
Some specifics of the verification remained to be worked out, but experts and diplomats from the six nations hoped to agree on those steps by early September, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.
“We would like the protocol to be reached within 45 days and, secondly, to begin verification within 45 days. We’re anticipating that, and we don’t see any obstacles,” Hill told reporters after the talks.
The agreement, if not yet complete, signals the start of the final phase of years of on-again, off-again negotiations to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Beyond the October deadline for disabling North Korea’s main nuclear facility at Yongbyon, the agreement did not set a timetable for full disarmament. But the administration of US President George W. Bush is believed to be eager to see North Korea disarmed before Bush leaves office in January.
Questions remain about how much of its nuclear programs North Korea disclosed in a declaration last month to the six-party group, which also includes Japan, Russia and South Korea. The North, which exploded a nuclear device in 2006, is believed by experts to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium to make as many as 10 nuclear bombs, and the US has accused Pyongyang of running a second weapons program based on uranium.
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