hankyoreh

Yonhap)

Starting in the second week of July, a series of initial steps to fulfill a February agreement to disarm North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are expected to take place. Plans are to include a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation to shut down and seal the North’s nuclear plant in Yongbyon and a shipment of 50,000 tons of heavy oil to North Korea. Based on the ‘‘action-to-action’’ principle, momentum is growing and a series of talks, including discussions among top negotiators for the six-party talks and working-level talks to normalize ties between North Korea and the United States, are likely to be set.

The six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue reached an agreement on February 13, entailing the North shut down its primary nuclear facilities within 60 days in return for energy aid and other benefits. The six nations involved were North and South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

North Korea, however, refused to fulfill its obligations on the deal and demanded that the US$25 million held at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia be released. The money, which was released last week, had been held there since September of last year, when the U.S. blacklisted the bank on suspicions of helping the North’s allegedly illicit financial activities, including money laundering and counterfeiting.

The funds continued to be held at the Macau bank, as no other banks wanted to be involved in the transfer of money once the U.S. had designated the funds as illicit, but were ultimately released when the U.S. Federal Reserve agreed to transfer the money to the North’s accounts at a Russian bank. Once the transfer was complete, a delegation from the IAEA visited the country from June 26 to June 30 to discuss the means of carrying out of the February 13 agreement.

The IAEA delegation responsible for monitoring and verifying the shut-down of the North’s nuclear reactor in Yongbyon is expected to re-visit North Korea on July 14. First, however, the IAEA is scheduled to hold a special meeting of the agency’s board of governors on July 9 to receive a briefing from the team who conducted the June 26-30 working-level visit to North Korea and to make decisions on the delegation’s next steps. Following the recent five-day visit, IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen called the visit ‘‘fruitful’’ and reported that North Korea had been cooperative. Heinonen also said that the IAEA and North Korea had reached an agreement on how to shut down and seal the Yongbyon reactor and a fuel reprocessing plant.

Before the IAEA’s July 14 return visit, South Korean ships carrying 50,000 tons of heavy oil are scheduled to leave for North Korea, as promised, in return for the North’s shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon reactor. At a working-level meeting held June 29-30 in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, South Korea agreed to send the first shipment of oil within two weeks and agreed to complete the shipment 20 days following the date of first delivery, putting the completion date somewhere in late July or early August. The oil shipments will be sent to the North’s Seonbong port (35,000 tons) and Nampo port (15,000 tons).

During the third week of July, top negotiators for the six-party talks are likely to meet in Beijing to discuss the second-stage of the February agreement, which includes completely disabling the North’s nuclear facilities. A specific timetable for the shutdown will be set after China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, visits North Korea July 2-4. During the visit. If the Chinese foreign minister meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il or First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, who is in charge of the North’s nuclear diplomacy in conjunction with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, they will discuss plans for peace on the Korean peninsula; they will also discuss a timetable for the next round of meetings of foreign ministers involved in the six-party talks, including the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan. Should they meet, it could speed up the overall progress of the talks. Before and after a meeting of top negotiators for the six-party talks, another serious of meetings, including talks on normalizing ties between North Korea and the U.S., meetings on economic and energy cooperation, and meetings between working-level officials for denuclearization, are scheduled to take place.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]