U.S. Group Visits N. Korea Nuke Complex

BEIJING (AP) -- Members of an unofficial American delegation to North Korea said Saturday they visited the communist country's disputed Yongbyon nuclear complex, which has been closed to outsiders since U.N. inspectors were expelled more than a year ago.

The five Americans, who returned Saturday to Beijing, were allowed to see everything they requested, said John W. Lewis, a Stanford University professor emeritus of international relations.

The Americans wouldn't say how much time they spent at Yongbyon or what else they saw. They said they couldn't give more details until two delegation members who are on the staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report Washington.

North Korea said Saturday that it showed its "nuclear deterrent" to the U.S. delegation.

"As everybody knows, the United States compelled the DPRK to build nuclear deterrent," an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, referring to North Korea by its official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We showed this to Lewis and his party this time," the spokesman added in a commentary by North Korea's official KCNA news agency. "The delegation's visit to the facility was not an inspection but a visit at the invitation of the DPRK."

The spokesman did not clarify whether the "nuclear deterrent" meant the Yongbyon facility.

U.S. officials believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear bombs, and can make several more within months. North Korea has never confirmed or denied having atomic weapons.

The official said the visit was to "ensure transparency as speculative reports and ambiguous information about the DPRK's nuclear activities are throwing hurdles in the way of settling the pending nuclear issue."

Others in the U.S. delegation were Sig Hecker, a former director of Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, and Jack Pritchard, a former staff member of the U.S. National Security Council and a former State Department official.

The United States, China, the Koreas, Russia and Japan have been trying to arrange a new round of talks to end the standoff over the North's nuclear program. The last round ended in August with neither a settlement nor a date to meet again.

Japan's Asahi newspaper reported Saturday that China had offered North Korean $50 million in aid to take part in a new round of six-party talks.

China's No. 2 leader, Wu Bangguo, presented the offer to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a visit to Pyongyang in October, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources. It said North Korea would get the money only after the conclusion of the talks.

The dispute flared in October 2002 when Washington accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. A U.S.-led international coalition cut off free oil shipments being supplied under the accord, and North Korea later expelled U.N. inspectors from Yongbyon.

North Korea said last month it hopes to hold a new round of talks early this year. But on Friday, it suggested that such negotiations might be tough, warning against expecting the North to follow "some Middle East countries" - an apparent reference to Libya's decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction.

Lewis stressed that the trip by the American delegation was a private effort aimed at improving understanding of North Korean issues.

Throughout the visit, North Korean officials were "very cooperative, very courteous," Hecker said.

Lewis said the delegation met North Korean military, foreign affairs, scientific and economic officials, but he wouldn't identify them or say what they discussed.

The start of the visit Tuesday coincided with the North's announcement that it was willing to freeze its nuclear program - an offer that Secretary of State Colin Powell called positive.

North Korea said it would not test or produce nuclear weapons and even stop operating its nuclear power industry "as first-phase measures of the package solution." The announcement said its proposal should be the focus of preparations for new talks.

The Bush administration has said it wants evidence that North Korea is beginning to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers any concessions.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea, says North Korea has at least three nuclear reactors.

Last year, it restarted a five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon. An unfinished 50-megawatt reactor also stands at Yongbyon, and a 200-megawatt one is located just northeast of the site at Taechon, it says.

A U.S.-led international consortium had been building two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors on the country's east coast. But that was suspended last month because of the nuclear standoff.

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
11	Illinois	770.00	20	38.50	437	1.76	283.00	18

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

North Korea said Saturday that it showed its "nuclear deterrent" to the U.S. delegation.

My goodness, it's a bim!

They only can or will request to see what they have knowledge of.

Sure the North Koreans will show them that.

They will NOT show them things the North Koreans have hidden, that the US delegation or US intelligence does not have a consciousness of.

What a sham.

They only went to Pyongyang to be delivered a Nuclear Blackmail threat by North Korea.

Can anyone imagine a delegation going to Baghdad, and being told by Saddam, who admits to a WMD program such as nukes, that "now we will negotiate with the Americans. Thank you." We would not have stood for it.

Again, this is nothing short of Nuclear Blackmail.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.