Posted on 01/21/2007 10:02:00 PM PST by HAL9000
North Korea has reportedly agreed to halt nuclear activities including operations at a reactor in Yongbyon, and allow on-site monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency as the first steps to abandoning its nuclear program. The agreement came during a meeting of the chief nuclear negotiators of the U.S. and North Korea that ended Friday in Berlin, sources said.According to diplomatic sources in Seoul and Beijing, North Koreas top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan told his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill that North Korea will yield in return for economic and energy aid from the U.S. and assurances that the U.S. will seek to unfreeze North Koreas US$24 million in accounts with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia.
The U.S. will discuss conditions for the lifting of financial sanctions in separate bilateral talks scheduled this month. The North is expected to implement its part of the deal once it is finalized in the next round of the six-nation nuclear talks, which are likely to resume early next month. Pyongyang and Washington agreed to use the term monitoring rather than inspection.
Other sources said Pyongyang demanded that Washington consider transforming the armistice that ended the Korean War into a peace treaty as soon as it starts implementing the initial measures, and the U.S. gave a positive response. The two Koreas remain technically at war since no peace treaty was ever concluded.
Hill flew from Tokyo to Beijing on Sunday to discuss the six-party talks. He said he expected the multilateral negotiations to reopen in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, Kim met with his Russian counterpart Alexander Losyukov in Moscow on Sunday morning. Diplomatic sources in Moscow said Kim told the Russian deputy foreign minister about the results of his meeting with Hill in Berlin and sought cooperation from Russia in persuading the U.S. to lift financial sanctions. Kim also reportedly discussed with Losyukov the timetable for the resumption of the six-party talks.
Why are people playing ball with this guy.
He is a modern day mass murdering pol pot who just needs to be taken out.
OH TIGER CHIA pet is at again
He's always ready. ....as long as enough U.S. taxpayer dollars are being offered.
And then, not long after he receives what he wants, he'll resume nuke production.
Same old game. ....and I hope we're done playing.
Three year old wants cookie, can't have cookie, throws tantrum, gets cookie.
Three year old learns bad lesson.
Three steps forward. One step back in exchange for some concession. This game is not over.
The dems are not going to like this one bit.
Why not? It's the fact that they took control of Congress that ultimately made Bush be more compromising to finally get a deal with Kim. < / media spin>
The dems are against anything Bush does that's good .. somehow they will make a negative out of it.
Ronery ping
Bush rolled up the Pak nuke souk, Got Libya to fold and turn over its nuke program we didn't even know about and now this--And who gets the Nobel prize for peace? Thugs like Annan, Carter and Arafat.
Bush has done more for world peace than anyone in the world.
President Bush may never get the credit he deserves for fighting against the proliferation of nuclear weapons - but he has never been motivated by seeking prizes or adulation. His record of accomplishment speaks for itself.
Why assume we are playing ball? Perhaps the NK regime is finally on the brink of collapse and they solicited us with an offer.
Not that I know anything you dont wrt this meeting. And I agree little Kim deserves the business end of a large GPS guided munition. :)
How very interesting. Not what I expected at all. Maybe Kimmie is finding the big boom a little more difficult than expected? No comment beyond that...watching closely...BTT...
There is a report to that effect in local media here. It says that NK researchers purposely put less than weapon's grade Plutonium(more than 7% of Pu240), ensuring the explosion, but resulting in far less yield(TNT 400 ton) than desired(4 kilo ton.) This is because they have been making exaggerated report of their progress to Kim Jong-il to keep him satisfied. However, they were worried quite a lot about the day when they are asked to perform the nuclear test. Basically their detonator was far from perfect. Their solution to this serious predicament was to use Plutonium with too much Pu240. This way, the bomb will explode whether the detonator works properly or not.
Wonder if President Bush is going to include this in tomorrow night's SOTU?
"Wonder if President Bush is going to include this in tomorrow night's SOTU?"
If Bush declared tomorrow night that North Korea has suspended all nuclear activities, the Dem response would be, "Iran is developing nukes, what are we doing about that?"
Oh will he!
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