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DPRK issue requires different approach
WU YIXUE Updated: 2003-11-25 08:06
The Korean Peninsular Energy Development Organization (KEDO)
announced on Friday that the construction of two light-water reactors in the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be suspended for one year,
starting from December 1.
"The executive board of KEDO, given that the
conditions necessary for continuing the light-water reactor project have not
been met by the DPRK, has decided to suspend the light-water reactor project,"
KEDO said in its statement.
At the critical juncture when positive signs
are emerging for the settlement of the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula,
KEDO's suspension announcement is pouring cold water on a thawing
situation.
KEDO, an international consortium consisting of the United
States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan and the European Union (EU), promised
to help the DPRK build the two light-water reactors in the DPRK in return for
Pyongyang's halt to its nuclear programme according to a DPRK-US
agreement.
The accord also commits the United States to annually provide
some amount of heavy-fuel oil to DPRK before the two light-water reactors are
built. According to the timetable, the first one should be completed by the end
of this year and the second completed by 2007.
Washington cut off its
free oil shipments to Pyongyang immediately after the United States said last
October the DPRK had confessed to running a secret nuclear weapons development
programme, and the construction of the nuclear power project has since come to a
standstill. So far, only one-third of the project has been completed.
The
United States consistently asserts that it is not bound to build such a project
any more, on the grounds that the DPRK did not abide by its commitment to stop
its nuclear programme. But Pyongyang attributed its nuclear weapons development
to the United States' hostile policy towards the DPRK and Washington's
deliberate postponement of the construction of the two light-water
reactors.
The United States has consistently pushed KEDO to completely
stop its construction of the two reactors. But other KEDO members, especially
the ROK and Japan, were concerned that the decision would provoke some extreme
reactions from the DPRK.
This latest decision was the result of
compromise between the United States and other KEDO members after the body held
a private consultation earlier this month.
The ROK, Japan and the EU
still advocate using the prospect of reviving the project to persuade the DPRK
to scrap its nuclear weapons development programme. But Adam Ereli, a US State
Department spokesman, said on Thursday "there's no prospect for the
project."
Given the complication of the nuclear crisis on the Korean
Peninsula and the lack of mutual trust between the United States and the DPRK,
KEDO's decision will undoubtedly cast a shadow over international efforts to
settle the long-standing and complicated nuclear standoff.
Currently,
active efforts are being made for the second round of six-party talks, which are
expected to be held in Beijing in December. The first round of six-party talks,
which included China, the United States, the DPRK, Russia, the ROK and Japan,
was held in August in Beijing without resolving the fundamental dispute between
Washington and Pyongyang.
The possibility for the second round of talks
has been on the increase since October, when US President George W. Bush
promised a written security guarantee to the DPRK at the Asia-Pacific summit
meeting and Pyongyang in turn gave up its long-held demand that a non-aggression
treaty should be signed with the United States.
On the eve of the next
round of talks, the assumption that KEDO's decision was a US move to press the
DPRK for more concessions is not groundless.
(China Daily
)
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