Posted on 11/27/2003 7:29:27 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
US eyes plan to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program
Wed Nov 26, 9:06 PM ET
TOKYO, (AFP) - The United States is devising a comprehensive plan to dismantle North Korea (news - web sites)'s nuclear weapons program that would involve nuclear experts from the five declared nuclear states, press reports said.
Washington believes the involvement of Britain, China, France, the United States and Russia is essential to verify a complete dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear arms program, Kyodo News and Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The United States will brief North Korea about the plan at a second round of six-party talks to resolve Pyongyang's nuclear crisis, the reports said, quoting US government sources.
The nuclear standoff erupted last year when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 accord with the United States.
Under its new plan, Washington hopes North Korea would first declare all its nuclear-related activities and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and accept inspectors from the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The North would then start dismantling its nuclear capabilities under the monitoring by nuclear experts from the five nuclear powers, which are also the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Nuclear-related materials, including spent fuel rods and plutonium, would be transferred from North Korea to another country for IAEA monitoring, the reports said.
The involvement of the five nuclear powers is based on a process used to verify South Africa's abandonment of nuclear arms, Kyodo said.
In 1993 South Africa announced it had voluntarily dismantled nuclear arms produced in a secret program and one year later the IAEA verified dismantlement of its nuclear capability with the help of the five nuclear states.
But the Yomiuri Shimbun said it is unclear whether North Korea would accept the US plan, and if the Stalinist regime rejected the offer Washington would unlikely provide written security assurances to Pyongyang.
The US government has said it is ready to put into words a promise already made verbally not to attack North Korea in return for Pyongyang's pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons drive.
The six-way talks members China, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea (news - web sites) are reported to be piecing together a written security guarantee that could be offered to North Korea if it renounces nuclear weapons.
The North Korean nuclear standoff erupted in October last year when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to running a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 accord with the United States.
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