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North Korea Freezes Freezing
// The U.S. will turn the blind eye on North Korea’s not meeting disarmament deadlines
The deadline by which North Korea is to close down its nuclear facilities and to submit them under the IAEA’s control runs out on Saturday. Pyongyang will fail to meet the deadline because it is going to begin works for freezing the facilities only after it receives the $24 million from its accounts in Delta Asia bank in Macau. Yet, instead of threats to impose sanctions for breaking agreements, Washington said it is necessary to extend the deadline.
New Mexico Governor and 2008 presidential candidate Bill Richardson clarified on Tuesday the issue of North Korea’s fulfillment of obligations to freeze its nuclear facilities according to the agreement as of February 13th. Several days ago, he arrived to North Korea to discuss turning over to the U.S. the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War (1950-1953). He completed the mission successfully. General Ri Chan Bok, North Korea's commanding general at the border with South Korea, assured Richardson on Tuesday that the remains of six U.S. soldiers will be turned over to the UN Command in South Korea and the Military Armistice Commission at Panmunjom frontier point on Wednesday. A formal ceremony marking the transfer of remains will be held Thursday in Seoul. Then the remains will be delivered to Honolulu, where they will be DNA tested. It is important for Americans, because they lost over 33,000 soldiers in the Korean War, and 8,100 of them are still listed as missing.
"This is a very positive gesture on the part of the North Korean government," Richardson said following the meeting with General Ri. "Hopefully it will help heal the wounds from the Korean War.”
Richardson also discussed another issue, important for the U.S. and the world, -- that of closing down North Korea’s nuclear programs. During the regular round of the 6-party talks in Beijing on February 13, an agreement was signed, according to which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for substantial economic aid, security guarantees, and lifting of financial sanctions. The agreement stipulates that 30 days after it was signed, that is by mid-March, the U.S. was to unfreeze the $24 million on North Korea’s accounts in Delta Asia banc in Macau, as the first step. In response, Pyongyang was to close down its nuclear facilities and to submit them under the IAEA’s control by April 14th. However, movement towards denuclearizing Korean Peninsula stumbled already at the first step. Although the U.S. Department of the Treasury, on whose demand in September 2005 North Korea’s accounts in Delta Asia were frozen, decided to unfreeze them, it did not lift the epithet ‘dirty’ off the money. Consequently, no bank in the world dared to receive it, being afraid for its own reputation, and Pyongyang did not manage to receive the money. North Korea said: as long as there is no money, it will not start works to shut down nuclear reactors.
Four days before the deadline expires, Richardson met with Kim Ki Gwan, North Korea’s deputy foreign minister and head of its delegation to the 6-party talks, in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The U.S. official asked how the preparation to freezing nuclear reactors is going. Kim replied that North Korea will not begin shutting down the reactors until it receives the $24 million. Yet, he assured Richardson that as soon as Pyongyang gets the money, it will immediately let in the IAEA inspectors, under whose supervision the closing down of nuclear programs will begin.
It is clear that Pyongyang will fail to carry out its obligations by April 14th. Thus, the U.S. Department of State’s spokesman Sean McCormack was asked at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday what sanctions will be imposed on North Korea. McCormack did not answer, saying however that the issue of transferring the money “turned out to be more complicated than anyone could imagine”. He added that Washington should not object against extending the deadline for the agreement’s implementation.
Andrei Ivanov
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 11, 2007
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