hankyoreh

2008

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was reportedly the first to propose that North Korea destroy a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor about a year ago.

A diplomatic source who is familiar with relations between Pyongyang and Washington said, on May 21, “Hill proposed that the North destroy the nuclear facility about a year ago and the North has recently accepted.” It is likely that Hill made the proposal during his first visit to Pyongyang on June 21-22, 2007.

Meanwhile, Kim Sook, the chief South Korean negotiator to the six-party talks, said that Washington and Pyongyang agreed that if the United States removes the North from its list of nations sponsoring terrorism by the time the North submits its official nuclear declaration to China, the host country of the six-party talks, North Korea will destroy the cooling tower before the talks resume in June.

Kim’s comments were made during a press conference in Washington on May 20 (EDT) that followed a meeting of chief negotiators to the six-party talks from South Korea, the United States and Japan. The United States and North Korea also agreed to having the North dismantle the cooling tower, which is the second stage in the elimination of the North’s nuclear weapons program, to give impetus to the next round of talks, Kim said.

The destruction of the cooling tower is largely symbolic. The agreement between the United States and North Korea to destroy it was most likely made because both sides felt the necessity of restraining U.S. hard-liners, who are opposed to removing the North from the blacklist unless the North submits a complete nuclear declaration. Destruction of the cooling tower has little meaning within the grand scheme of the North’s nuclear dismantlement process, but its symbolic effect is significant.

Radio Free Asia recently reported that the Associated Press was considering broadcasting the destruction of the cooling tower via the Associated Press Television News.

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