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UN Inspectors in North Korea to Discuss Reactor Shutdown
IAEA inspectors arrived in North Korea Tuesday to discuss Pyongyang’s plan to shut down its key nuclear facility in Yongbyon. Should the talks go further, the reactor may be closed down next month.
North Korea vowed to move forward with a February agreement now that a dispute over $25 million in frozen bank funds was finally resolved.
Pyongyang had insisted that its $25 million frozen under U.S. sanctions in a Macao bank be returned before the Yongbyon nuclear reactor was shut down and new negotiations were started. Moscow stepped in to help as Russia’s Dalkombank agreed to ask as an intermediary. It said Monday that the money had been transferred to North Korea.
Olli Heinonen, head of the delegation and IAEA deputy director general, said he was optimistic about the talks with his North Korean counterpart. “We are going to negotiate arrangement for ratification of shutting down and sealing Yongbyon facilities with the DPRK during the three-day visit,” he said.
The February agreement requires North Korea to shut down its plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill explained Tuesday what countries, like the United States expect from North Korea apart from the reactor shutdown.
Successful talks in North Korea will resume six-party negotiations which will confirm commitment for economic aid to the communist regime in return for the halt of all national nuclear programs and dismantling the Yongbyon reactor. By next year, talks should be focused on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and peace in the Korean peninsula, Christopher Hill said Tuesday. He also mentioned last Saturday North Korea might shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facilities “within probably three weeks.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 27, 2007
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