Seraphim
07-18-2003, 02:57 PM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/939145.asp?vts=071820031145
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/c54a4aabe92b5f/www.msnbc.com/news/1959871.jpg
China reportedly believes Pyongyang has processed enough plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods, seen here in a cooling pond in Yongbyon, North Korea, to complete a nuclear bomb.
July 18 — Citing reports that North Korea was reprocessing spent fuel rods that were restricted under U.N. supervision, the head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog warned Friday that the Pyongyang government posed the “most immediate and most serious threat” to efforts to control the world’s nuclear weapons.
THE OFFICIAL, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors were thrown out of the country in December, called on other nations to increase their pressure on North Korea to reverse course.
“In my view, the situation in the DPRK is currently the most immediate and most serious threat to the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” ElBaradei said, referring to North Korea by the initials for its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“I find it regrettable that little concrete progress on the issue appears to have been made since December, when the agency’s verification work came to a halt. I earnestly hope that the international community will urgently focus its efforts on bringing the DPRK back to the nonproliferation regime,” he said, adding that he was “committed to continuing to work with all concerned parties to help achieve a comprehensive solution to this problem.”
ElBaradei, who made his remarks in a statement issued after the IAEA’s board of governors met in Vienna, Austria, to approve a new budget, said he was specifically concerned by reports that North Korea had reprocessed all of its 8,000 spent fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium. U.S. officials have said they were not sure whether North Korean representatives were bluffing when they made the claim last week.
ElBaradei said, however, that he was “encouraged by some recent efforts on the part of China to restart a dialogue.” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo was scheduled to brief Secretary of State Colin Powell later Friday in Washington, D.C., on his meeting last weekend with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
CONCERN GROWING SINCE OCTOBER
The mission by Dai, who was believed to carry a personal note from Chinese President Hu Jintao to President Bush, was the latest in a flurry of diplomacy by China aimed at calming tensions over the North’s nuclear program.
China is pressing for another round of talks between Washington and Pyongyang similar to those that it hosted in April. Beijing, North Korea’s last major ally, has repeatedly said it does not want nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and wants the issue resolved peacefully through negotiations.
The nuclear dispute flared in October, when North Korea reportedly told a top U.S. official that it had restarted a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 accord.
The nuclear inspectors from the IAEA, a U.N. agency based in Vienna, were expelled in December shortly after North Korea dismantled U.N. seals and monitoring cameras installed at the country’s nuclear facilities. The facilities had been mothballed under a 1994 agreement with the United States.
Since then, the United States has relied mainly on satellite images for clues about what is going on at its nuclear facilities.
TRILATERAL TALKS IN AUGUST?
As tension over the development has grown in the intervening months, North Korea has demanded one-on-one discussions with the United States, saying the nuclear issue is between it and Washington. The United States says the issue a regional one, and it wants to include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
Beijing has said it would back any form for talks acceptable to the parties involved, although it was not clear what proposals Dai was pitching in Washington. But in what appeared to signal a compromise, a knowledgeable Chinese source told NBC News late Friday night that discussions among the United States, North Korea and China would likely take place in Beijing sometime in August.
Other parties, such as South Korea or Japan, would not be included, said the source, who asked not to be identified by name or position.
SUFFICIENT PLUTONIUM FOR BOMB
China’s diplomatic urgency may be fed by concerns that Pyongyang was pushing the issue to the brink of conflict.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Chinese intelligence officials believed the North had reprocessed enough plutonium to produce at least one nuclear bomb and had the parts for a missile able to carry a nuclear warhead.
China’s Foreign Ministry has not commented on the report, which the Journal attributed to unidentified diplomats who it said were briefed by Chinese officials.
Chinese troops fought alongside North Korean troops in the 1950-53 Korean War, and Beijing is the chief source of food and fuel aid to the North’s crippled economy. Beijing has opposed attempts to pressure Pyongyang with an embargo or criticize it in the United Nations.
NBC’s Eric Baculinao in Beijing, The Associated Press and ******* contributed to this report.
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/c54a4aabe92b5f/www.msnbc.com/news/1959871.jpg
China reportedly believes Pyongyang has processed enough plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods, seen here in a cooling pond in Yongbyon, North Korea, to complete a nuclear bomb.
July 18 — Citing reports that North Korea was reprocessing spent fuel rods that were restricted under U.N. supervision, the head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog warned Friday that the Pyongyang government posed the “most immediate and most serious threat” to efforts to control the world’s nuclear weapons.
THE OFFICIAL, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors were thrown out of the country in December, called on other nations to increase their pressure on North Korea to reverse course.
“In my view, the situation in the DPRK is currently the most immediate and most serious threat to the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” ElBaradei said, referring to North Korea by the initials for its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“I find it regrettable that little concrete progress on the issue appears to have been made since December, when the agency’s verification work came to a halt. I earnestly hope that the international community will urgently focus its efforts on bringing the DPRK back to the nonproliferation regime,” he said, adding that he was “committed to continuing to work with all concerned parties to help achieve a comprehensive solution to this problem.”
ElBaradei, who made his remarks in a statement issued after the IAEA’s board of governors met in Vienna, Austria, to approve a new budget, said he was specifically concerned by reports that North Korea had reprocessed all of its 8,000 spent fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium. U.S. officials have said they were not sure whether North Korean representatives were bluffing when they made the claim last week.
ElBaradei said, however, that he was “encouraged by some recent efforts on the part of China to restart a dialogue.” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo was scheduled to brief Secretary of State Colin Powell later Friday in Washington, D.C., on his meeting last weekend with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
CONCERN GROWING SINCE OCTOBER
The mission by Dai, who was believed to carry a personal note from Chinese President Hu Jintao to President Bush, was the latest in a flurry of diplomacy by China aimed at calming tensions over the North’s nuclear program.
China is pressing for another round of talks between Washington and Pyongyang similar to those that it hosted in April. Beijing, North Korea’s last major ally, has repeatedly said it does not want nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and wants the issue resolved peacefully through negotiations.
The nuclear dispute flared in October, when North Korea reportedly told a top U.S. official that it had restarted a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 accord.
The nuclear inspectors from the IAEA, a U.N. agency based in Vienna, were expelled in December shortly after North Korea dismantled U.N. seals and monitoring cameras installed at the country’s nuclear facilities. The facilities had been mothballed under a 1994 agreement with the United States.
Since then, the United States has relied mainly on satellite images for clues about what is going on at its nuclear facilities.
TRILATERAL TALKS IN AUGUST?
As tension over the development has grown in the intervening months, North Korea has demanded one-on-one discussions with the United States, saying the nuclear issue is between it and Washington. The United States says the issue a regional one, and it wants to include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
Beijing has said it would back any form for talks acceptable to the parties involved, although it was not clear what proposals Dai was pitching in Washington. But in what appeared to signal a compromise, a knowledgeable Chinese source told NBC News late Friday night that discussions among the United States, North Korea and China would likely take place in Beijing sometime in August.
Other parties, such as South Korea or Japan, would not be included, said the source, who asked not to be identified by name or position.
SUFFICIENT PLUTONIUM FOR BOMB
China’s diplomatic urgency may be fed by concerns that Pyongyang was pushing the issue to the brink of conflict.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Chinese intelligence officials believed the North had reprocessed enough plutonium to produce at least one nuclear bomb and had the parts for a missile able to carry a nuclear warhead.
China’s Foreign Ministry has not commented on the report, which the Journal attributed to unidentified diplomats who it said were briefed by Chinese officials.
Chinese troops fought alongside North Korean troops in the 1950-53 Korean War, and Beijing is the chief source of food and fuel aid to the North’s crippled economy. Beijing has opposed attempts to pressure Pyongyang with an embargo or criticize it in the United Nations.
NBC’s Eric Baculinao in Beijing, The Associated Press and ******* contributed to this report.