Posted on 03/29/2007 5:58:12 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
`NK Must Address Human Rights for Normalization With US'
North Korea needs to meet international standards, especially in human rights, in order to normalize ties with Washington, the Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday quoting the top U.S. envoy to the six-nation denuclearization talks. ``It's a price of admission to the international community,’’ Yonhap quoted Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill as saying Monday in Washington.
The envoy said it was ``very, very wrong’’ for Pyongyang to hold up nuclear negotiations over a banking issue but said he was still convinced the communist regime was committed to implementing a Feb. 13 agreement to shut down its nuclear facilities.
Hill returned over the weekend from Beijing where officials from South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, members of the so-called six-party process, met to discuss the disarmament agreement.
The deal requires Pyongyang to shut down and seal its primary nuclear facilities and to allow international inspectors back in within 60 days. In return, the energy-starved country would receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.
The second phase of the deal would involve the declaration and disabling of all North Korean nuclear facilities and weapons, for which Pyongyang would receive an additional 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent.
Yonhap, South Korea’s semi-official news service, quoted the U.S. envoy as saying that the declaration has to be ``minutely specific’’ on all the fissile material North Korea has, ``all of it down to the gram.’’
The February agreement also created five working groups, one of which is on U.S.-North Korea diplomatic normalization.
03-27-2007 15:32
Ping!
I give them a chance if we say something WRONG forgetaboutit
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