Posted on 08/02/2003 10:06:00 PM PDT by HAL9000
Japan, U.S. eye probe team Members of 6-way N. Korea talks plan N-inspection taskforce
Japan and the United States are considering forming a multilateral nuclear inspection team to ensure that North Korea scraps its nuclear weapons program in its entirety, government sources said Saturday.
Washington also intends to urge Pyongyang to accept thorough nuclear inspections by the envisaged team if North Korea agrees to end its nuclear arms program at planned six-party talks, according to Japanese and U.S. sources.
The Japanese, U.S. and South Korean governments are seeking, first and foremost, to ensure Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program is scrapped in a "verifiable and irreversible" manner.
The decision to form the multilateral nuclear inspection team came after U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton met Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and other senior Japanese officials Friday. Earlier, North Korea accepted a proposal to start six-way negotiations aimed at resolving the crisis arising from its nuclear arms program.
According to the sources, the inspection team is likely to comprise nuclear weapons specialists from the nations that will join the six-party talks, including the United States, China and Russia.
This plan is aimed at effectively preventing North Korea from building nuclear arms now or in the future, by assigning China and Russia, both North Korean neighbors, the task of achieving that goal. Pyongyang also will find it easier to accept multilateral nuclear inspections if the planned team includes China and Russia, both nations friendly to the North.
The Japanese government intends to send nuclear engineers and specialists with experience in nuclear inspections on the inspection mission to the reclusive state.
The planned inspection team will act independently of nuclear inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, if necessary, the team will cooperate with the IAEA, the sources said.
North Korean facilities subject to the multilateral team's inspection will include not only those in Yongbyong, but many other sites. The list of sites will range from undeclared plutonium and uranium-enrichment plants to facilities built to produce and test nuclear weapons detonators.
Under a U.S.-North Korea accord signed in 1994, an IAEA team inspected graphite-moderated nuclear reactors and related facilities in Yongbyong until December, when Pyongyang expelled inspectors.
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