hankyoreh

The denuclearization process that North Korea promised it would effect in a recent nuclear agreement has restarted after a four-month stall.

As Pyongyang has invited a working-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the communist country - part of its requirements per the agreement made on February 13 at the six-party talks on its nuclear program - the move can be interpreted as its intention to fully cooperate with the global community to shut down its nuclear facilities.

The move followed the resolution of a financial dispute over US$25 million frozen at Macao's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) due to blacklisting by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Later this month or early next month, the IAEA delegation is expected to visit the North to inspect its nuclear facilities, which will be followed by the provision of 50,000 tons of heavy oil aid to North Korea, the sixth round of the six-party talks, and other working-level negotiations designed to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear scheme and to help hammer out the next steps to be taken in terms of a "peace regime" on the Korean peninsula. All these steps were part of the pledges that the North made in the February 13 agreement.

How to dismantle the North's Yongbyon nuclear facilities is the next question. The IAEA delegation and the North must iron out differences in details needed to shut down and neutralize Pyongyang's nuclear facilities. Lee Je-seon, head of the North's nuclear power department, on June 16 sent a letter to IAEA's chief, Mohammed El Baradei, in which he said the invitation of the delegation is part of the process of inspection and monitoring of its nuclear facilities.

If both sides agree upon the details of the process, the IAEA will hold a special meeting of its Board of Governers, composed of 35 member states, and approve the dispatch of its inspection team to the North. The process will take two to three weeks if nothing unexpected happens. Subject to inspection would be the 5-megawatt nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant, major nuclear-related facilities that the North promised to freeze under the Agreed Framework in 1994. Experts forecast that the overall process will take three to four weeks, and that the North could take action to stop the operation of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities ahead of the IAEA delegation's visit.

Next would be the resumption of the six-party talks and working-level negotiations. Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator on the issue, said on June 15 during a visit to Mongolia that the six-party talks - attended by the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China, and Russia - will resume in tandem with the IAEA delegation entering the North. A Seoul official also said once the IAEA delegation visits the North, it means that the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities is a done deal, with only technological issues to be resolved. "By that time, neutralization of nuclear facilities and other issues will have been discussed in the six-party talks," he said on condition of anonymity. "Economic and energy cooperation along with the nuclear issue will be on the negotiating table before and after the six-party talks...The timetable of bilateral working-level negotiations could also be determined between individual participants."

If all aspects of the process go ahead as planned, inter-Korean relations, which have soured recently due to the stall in the North's denuclearization, are expected to improve, as the Seoul government is considering sending not only the 50,000 tons of heavy oil per the February 13 agreement but also 400,000 tons of rice to the North as humanitarian aid, shipments which also have been stalled due to the stalemate in the denuclearization process. A top government official said the aid provision would be timed with the visit by the IAEA delegation to the North. The six-party talks and inter-Korean relations, which have been stalled due to the money transfer issue, are likely back on track and moving toward improvement, the official said.

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