Posted on 11/05/2003 8:31:07 AM PST by Indy Pendance
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The United States won support from key allies Wednesday to halt construction of two nuclear power plants in North Korea for at least a year because of the communist state's atomic weapons program.
The executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization - a U.S.-based consortium building the reactors in North Korea - met in New York on Monday and Tuesday and discussed suspending the $4.6 billion project for the impoverished nation.
KEDO has been building two light-water reactors as part of a 1994 accord between Washington and Pyongyang in which North Korea promised to freeze its suspected nuclear weapons development. But the deal went sour in October 2002, when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted running such a weapons program.
The four-member executive board of KEDO said it would make its final announcement before Nov. 21 after consulting with the member nations' governments.
On Wednesday, however, the project's halt looked inevitable, as all key members of the board favored pulling out hundreds of workers, many of them South Koreas, who have been building the two light-water reactors at the isolated northeast corner of North Korea.
Washington says it sees "no future" for the project.
U.S. officials have been increasingly unhappy with the project, saying they cannot provide North Korea with a cheap and steady source of badly needed energy unless it dismantles its nuclear weapons program.
Other consortium members, notably South Korea, had wanted to keep it alive, fearing a suspension might further provoke North Korea in the yearlong confrontation over its nuclear weapons program. Last week, North Korea agreed "in principle" to return to multination talks aimed at ending the nuclear crisis.
The United States and other KEDO members settled for a compromise at their New York meeting, working out an agreement to "suspend" the project for one year, according to South Korean officials.
"The U.S. made clear its long-standing position that there is no future for the reactor project," the State Department said in a statement Tuesday. But Washington "also indicated that we could agree to a one-year suspension, after which resumption of the project would require unanimous executive board decision."
The European Union - a small partner in KEDO, providing $22.9 million a year - is "leaning towards" a one-year suspension, so as not to aggravate Pyongyang but keep open all avenues of dialogue with the government of North Korea, an EU official said.
"No final decision has been made. ... However, we are listening very carefully to the arguments of a suspension of construction," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
South Korea, which has shouldered 70 percent of the construction costs, insisted that the project not be shelved completely. It wants to use the prospect of reviving the project as leverage to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The light-water reactors are the biggest construction project in the North, coveted by the communist regime. They are for power-generation, and it's extremely difficult to use them for weapons purposes.
"Our government's position is suspending the project for one year on the premise of resuming it," South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan. "Resuming the project will be decided then, considering situations surrounding the North Korean nuclear issue."
In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima indicated his government supports a suspension as well, adding that such an move would not hamper efforts to resume six-nation talks on the North's nuclear arms program, according to the Kyodo news agency.
"In light of the current situation, I doubt a continuation of the project would be effective," Takashima was quoted as saying.
The United States and South Korea said resuming work on the reactors after a one-year suspension would depend on whether North Korea agrees to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
The Bush administration and its allies had already cut off 147 million gallons of annual free oil shipments - also part of the 1994 deal. Pyongyang retaliated by expelling monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. nuclear watchdog. Last month, it said it was building more atomic bombs besides one or two bombs it already is believed to posses.
Representatives of the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia met in August in Beijing to discuss ending the nuclear crisis. But the meeting ended without agreement on a next round.
Last month, North Korea agreed "in principle" to return to the six-nation talks, although no date has been set.
Despite the U.S. doubts, South Korea has kept 605 South Koreans, 353 Uzbeks and 99 North Koreans working to build the two reactors in the North. South Korea has already sunk $850 million into the project, and it fears that scrapping would trigger an uproar at home. Japan has paid at least $393 million so far.
Also Wednesday, South Korea said new U.S.-made missiles would be deployed next month near its border with the North. With a range of about 190 miles, the Army Tactical Missile System Block 1A missiles can hit targets across most of North Korea, including its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang.
Wow, that is so generous of the EU to participate in burden-sharing in that $4.6 billion project. They have been equally generous in Iraq.
Sad that the US needs permission to halt construction. What was it Sen. Miller said about copperheads again?
Funny how that didn't seem to stop them from making nukes.
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