North Korea Sells its Atom for Triple Price
Six-sided talks in Beijing concerning North Korea’s nuclear program were supposed to end on Monday. However, they have been prolonged for at least one more day. Parties have not reached agreement on the price which the world has to pay to North Korea for it to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Current round of six-sided talks in Beijing began on February 8, bringing the general formula of the prospective agreement: North Korea is to terminate its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid. However, North Korea set an unexpectedly high price. Pyongyang allegedly demands from 2 million metric tons of oil plus 2 million kWh of electric energy annually to 500,000 tons. It turned out at last that North Korea demanded 1 million metric tons of oil annually, while other five countries agreed only to 500,000 tons.
The main question remains unanswered, however. Who is to pay for supplying 1 million or at least 500,000 metric tons of oil each year? So far, only the U.S., China, and South Korea are ready to chip in for 500,000 tons. Japan made it clear that Tokyo will not take part in providing aid to Pyongyang unless the latter solves the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean special services in 1970-80s.
Russia is expected to supply ‘replacing energy’. South Korea held consultations with the Russian delegation on Sunday, after which Seoul began speaking enthusiastically about possible supplies of energy surplus, coal, and wood from Russia’s Far East to North Korea.
Kirill Odintsov, Beijing
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 13, 2007
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