NKorea's disablement to begin in mid October: report

NUKEWARS

North Korea diplomats on hush-hush tour of Washington
A group of North Korean diplomats got a secret tour of Washington last month, seeing the White House and driving past the Pentagon, the Chicago Tribune reported on its website Friday. But the 16 North Korean diplomats and their families posted to the United Nations and normally not allowed to travel outside New York were not all that impressed on their September 8 visit, which the Tribune called "unprecedented." "They were like, 'Is that all?' when they stopped at the White House, Fred Carriere, executive director of the Korea Society and one of the group's tour escorts, told the newspaper. The visit came as Washington begun acknowledging Pyongyang's progress on meeting its commitments to move toward nuclear disarmament. The Tribune said the North Koreans came to Washington with the approval of Christopher Hill, the senior US diplomat in charge of negotiating the North Korean nuclear disarmament deal under the six-party framework. Because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations and have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War, Pyongyang's diplomats are normally confined to a 40 kilometer (25 mile) radius from Manhattan, where the United Nations is located. Carriere told the Tribune that the North Koreans also visited the Lincoln Memorial landmark in central Washington, where they demonstrated their knowledge of US history. One pointed to the Lincoln quote inscribed on the memorial wall asserting that all men are created equal and said: "But we understand he had slaves," Carriere said. The Tribune reported that in another sign of warming relations, representatives of the New York Philharmonic were to travel to Pyongyang this week to arrange a visit there by the United States' most prominent orchestra.

by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Oct 7, 2007
North Korea will likely begin disabling its nuclear facilities in mid-October under a disarmament-for-aid deal that should see the process completed by year's end, a news report said Sunday.

The disablement would take 45 days from the start until late November or early December, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said quoting unnamed officials.

The report came after top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Washington was preparing to send a team of experts to North Korea this week ahead to discuss initiating the process.

Seoul's former unification minister Jong Se-Hyun, who met the North's chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan in Pyongyang during the inter-Korean summit last week, has said Kim wants to quickly get disablement started.

Under a six-nation deal announced Wednesday, North Korea will disable its five-megawatt plutonium producing reactor and two other facilities at Yongbyon and also declare all its nuclear programmes by December 31.

In return, the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea will provide the energy-starved North with another 900,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, in addition to 100,000 tonnes already sent.

As part of diplomatic rewards for the North's disablement, Washington has promised to work towards removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and eventually normalising diplomatic ties.

The United States has reiterated that normalisation would be possible only after North Korea is fully denuclearised.

It is not known how much nuclear weapons material or how many nuclear detonating devices the North has.

Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in October last year.

earlier related report
China key to ending Korean war: Seoul
South Korea on Sunday reiterated that China could be invited to international peace talks aimed at putting a formal end to the Korean War.

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed at a landmark summit in Pyongyang last week that "three or four nations" should meet to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 conflict with a permanent peace agreement.

The Pyongyang accord has raised questions about who should participate in such a meeting, as the war involved four main parties -- the two Koreas, the United States, which led UN forces, and China, which backed the North.

"As this issue requires a consensus among the four parties, we'll push for it after listening to China," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-Seon said Sunday, when asked whether eventual talks would involve three or four parties.

"It leaves fully open the possibility of China participating together with the two Koreas in the peace talks."

Officials in Seoul have said that the two Koreas and the United States are "three" basic parties to the peace talks, with China remaining an option.

But the armistice was signed by China, North Korea and the US-led United Nations forces, but not by South Korea.

When asked when peace talks could take place before President Roh Moo-Hyun's term ends next February, Cheon said he could not give "a definitive answer."

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said Sunday the peace talks could come before or after a formal declaration that the war is over, adding that the timing should be linked to progress in denuclearising the North.

US President George W. Bush has said that he will only discuss replacing the armistice with a peace treaty once Pyongyang abandons its nuclear drive.

At the latest six-nation talks, the North agreed to disable its key plutonium-producing nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programmes by December 31.

Following last week's summit, North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il is scheduled to visit Seoul in November for talks with his South Korean counterpart Han Duck-Soo, Cheon said.

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NUKEWARS

Korean leaders declare commitment to peace

Seoul (AFP) Oct 4, 2007
The North and South Korean leaders called Thursday for a nuclear-free peninsula and a permanent peace pact to end the world's last Cold War divide as they wrapped up a rare summit.

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