N.Korea must declare uranium program: U.S. envoy

Will it ever be possible for the U.S. to make a deal it does not renege on?
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By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent 12 minutes ago

North Korea's obligatory declaration of its nuclear programs under a disarmament pact must include its secret uranium enrichment, the U.S. envoy in talks with Pyongyang said on Tuesday.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in a speech before the second day of talks with North Korea that Washington wanted Pyongyang to be clear about its obligations under the landmark nuclear deal.

"We want to be sure that when the North Koreans give us a declaration there are no surprises and no omissions," he said in a speech at the Japan Society in New York.

Under the February 13 deal reached in Beijing by the Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, North Korea must begin discussions within 60 days to produce a comprehensive list of its nuclear activities.

Hill on Tuesday resumed talks with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan aimed at eventually normalizing diplomatic ties as part of the agreement, under which Pyongyang has pledged to scrap its nuclear arms programs in exchange for aid.

The two-day New York talks are focusing on political and legal impediments to normalization of ties between countries that have been bitter foes since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

INTELLIGENCE DEBATE

Hill repeated U.S. assertions that Pyongyang is trying to enrich uranium -- allegations that caused a 1994 U.S.-North Korea nuclear agreement to unravel and over which there is debate in Washington after U.S. officials acknowledged some gaps in intelligence.

"There's a whole list of things that North Korea has been purchasing over the years that are entirely consistent with a highly enriched uranium program," Hill said.

"If they don't have a highly enriched uranium program, why did they buy all his stuff?" he asked, referring to expensive centrifuges, aluminum tubing and manuals.

Uranium enrichment would be a second way to increase the stockpile of fissile material of North Korea, which last October tested a nuclear device made from plutonium produced by a reactor to be shuttered under the February 13 disarmament deal.

The negotiating teams of Hill and Kim held four hours of "very constructive, very businesslike" talks on Monday evening, said Hill, who will address the media when the talks conclude on Tuesday afternoon.

He declined to discuss the initial meeting in detail, but said: "We don't look for any immediate outcome from this meeting. It is just a first session."

The talks in New York marked the highest-level meeting between the two countries on U.S. soil since communist North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, sent a top envoy to Washington in 2000 in an abortive effort to improve relations.

Analysts have been skeptical about rapprochement between the United States and North Korea -- a country President George W. Bush in 2002 labeled part of an "axis of evil."

The normalization effort "does not mean that all our problems with North Korea go away with the abandonment of their nuclear aspirations," said Hill. "Obviously we'll have continuing differences with North Korea."

Issues to be discussed on Tuesday include Washington's designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism and U.S. trade sanctions against it under the Trading with the Enemy Act, Hill said.

Before the next round of six-party nuclear talks in Beijing on March 19, North Korea will hold discussions with Japan in Hanoi this week. The parties will also have separate meetings on energy aid, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and regional security.