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U.S. Open to North Korean Nuclear Freeze, But Rejects Financial Compensation
The United States said yesterday that it was willing to discuss a “freeze” of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but would not offer North Korea financial compensation for doing so, according to the Financial Times (see GSN, Feb. 3). A new round of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program has been scheduled to be held in Beijing later this month. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that the United States would not “pay again” for unfulfilled promises made by North Korea in the past. The United States is willing, though, to provide North Korea with some kind of security assurance in the context of a regional agreement, he said. Boucher also reaffirmed that the final U.S. goal was a verifiable and irreversible end to all North Korean nuclear efforts (Ward/Dinmore, Financial Times, Feb. 4). An Australian delegation sent to North Korea over the weekend received assurances that Pyongyang’s offer to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for U.S. concessions could lead to full nuclear dismantlement, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il “confirmed that North Korea's offer to ‘freeze’ its nuclear activities in return for certain ‘reciprocal measures’ was only the first step in a process which would lead to the eventual dismantlement of its nuclear weapons program,” Downer said (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, Feb. 4). North Korea, though, has reiterated its demands for security guarantees and compensation in exchange for halting its nuclear weapons program. “The important thing is for us to begin resolving the problem on the principle of simultaneous actions,” said Kim Ryong Song, head of a North Korean delegation that arrived in Seoul yesterday for three days of talks. “If that is difficult for the U.S. to do, the first stage should be a freeze for compensation,” Kim said (Jack Kim, Reuters, Feb. 4). South Korean delegate Shin Eon-sang called on North Korea to be more flexible. “We urged North Korea to take a more progressive position on the dismantlement of the nuclear programs in general because it will be difficult to resolve the nuclear issue in the near future just with North Korea’s offer of a freeze in exchange for compensation,” Shin said (Soo-jeong Lee, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 4). Some experts have said that North Korea is becoming increasingly willing to strike a deal with the United States over its nuclear weapons program to bring in needed aid. “The North Koreans are getting weaker. They can’t stand it any longer. They feel they have to make a deal,” said Toshio Miyatsuka, a Japanese expert on North Korea at Yamanashi Gakuin University. Eric Heginbotham, an Asian specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there appears to be a new willingness to negotiate by both North Korea and the United States. “My level of confidence that there will be some progress is higher than it was a year ago, or even six months ago. But I do think this will take a while,” he said (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 4).
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