hankyoreh

As a group of nuclear experts are planning to visit North Korea on October 9, second-phase denuclearization efforts are gaining momentum. Unlike the previous delegation composed of officials from the United States, China and Russia, this time a South Korean official and a group of U.S. experts will travel to the communist country. In return, the United States began taking measures to remove North Korea from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism on October 4.

Based on the outcome of the previous trip, the nuclear experts are expected to meet with North Korean officials in order to fine-tune the technical and workable measures needed for the disablement of nuclear programs in the communist country, as promised in a deal reached on October 3 among negotiators at the six-party talks, which include the United States, North and South Korea, Russia, China and Japan. The results will be put into action after being reported to envoys to the talks. A U.S. company will carry out the disablement of the Yongbyon facilities and all six countries will form a “watching group” to monitor the process, government officials said.

A 5-megawatt testing reactor, reprocessing and fuel-rod producing facilities will be subject to the disablement process in that their key parts will be destroyed or removed and stored in other places so that they cannot be used again later. Whether those parts will be transferred to a third country or monitored in designated areas by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, will be decided on by the six-party players in a separate meeting. The second phase of denuclearization will be completed by the end of October as promised in the latest agreement and a foreign ministers’ meeting of the six countries is likely to follow.

Experts say that there will be bilateral negotiations between North Korea and the United States in late October. To push forward the removal of the North from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism, normalize bilateral ties and set the tone for foreign ministers’ meetings among the six countries, both sides need to sit down together at the negotiating table.

Kim Kye-kwan, the North’s nuclear envoy, and his U.S. counterpart, Christopher Hill, could have their third meeting in Pyongyang as part of working-level efforts to normalize ties between the two countries. They met for their second round of talks in Geneva in early September.


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