ACCESSION NUMBER:364608
FILE ID:POL307
DATE:10/19/94
TITLE:IAEA HEAD ENDORSES NUCLEAR PACT WITH NORTH KOREA (10/19/94)
TEXT:*94101907.POL
IAEA HEAD ENDORSES NUCLEAR PACT WITH NORTH KOREA
(Ready to monitor agreed nuclear freeze, Blix says) (650)
By Russell E. Dybvik
USIA Diplomatic Correspondent
Washington -- The chief executive of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) has pledged his organization's support for a nuclear framework
agreement to be signed October 21 in Geneva by the United States and North
Korea.
Secretary of State Christopher, who met October 19 at the State Department
with IAEA Director General Hans Blix, said North Korea's pledge, under
terms of the agreement, "to freeze its present nuclear activities and to
dismantle its existing nuclear facilities" will call for "expanded
responsibilities on the part of the IAEA."
"I've been very grateful for Mr. Blix's indication here today that they're
prepared to work with us in carrying out those responsibilities," the
secretary said.
Blix said he views the U.S.-North Korea agreed framework as "a way of
promoting the implementation of the safeguards agreement" which already
exists between the IAEA and the DPRK. It was Pyongyang's announcement that
it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
together with its threat to suspend permission for IAEA inspectors to carry
1ut their safeguards work, that triggered the North Korean nuclear crisis
in March 1993.
"They are coming back to that agreement," Blix pointed out. In addition to
its safeguards agreement duties, the IAEA will now be asked to monitor the
North Korean nuclear freeze, provided the U.N. Security Council endorses
the agreed framework as expected.
"We will be quite ready to do so....We are already present continuously in
the DPRK and we will remain there," Blix declared.
Responding to questions, Blix pointed out that while the IAEA has "never
said that North Korea has nuclear weapons, we found in analysis of material
from their reprocessing plant that there is more plutonium than they have
declared; and we don't know whether that's in grams or in kilograms." He
said that question will very likely remain unanswered for some time to
come.
Noting that North Korea has refused to cooperate with the IAEA "in
clarifying the past," Blix said "there is at least a commitment by the DPRK
that they will, at a subsequent date, go along with this clarification of
the past through acceptance of our inspections." That clarification will
come through inspection of two nuclear waste sites in North Korea to
determine whether or not nuclear material may have been diverted to weapons
programs, he said.
Emphasizing that North Korea "clearly will not get a number of things that
it wants from this agreement unless it follows through," Christopher told
reporters it will be a step-by-step -- "you do something and we do
something" -- carefully calculated approach.
Earlier, State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said the United States
is leading the effort to put together an international consortium called
the Korean Energy Development Organization, which will structure the
financing of the light-water reactor technology project. The Republic of
Korea and Japan will play central roles in that project. "We are making a
strenuous effort to attract additional participation on the part of others
in the world community," McCurry said.
In addition, the United States will take a leading role in the consortium to
help address North Korea's energy needs. The DPRK has a critical energy
shortage, McCurry noted, and heavy oil, mainly for heating, will be
provided as an alternate energy source over the next ten years.
While concessions were made to Pyongyang in the negotiations, McCurry
emphasized that all of Washington's central concerns were fully met,
including the most urgent, the freeze of North Korea's nuclear program.
Other issues, such as missile proliferation, terrorism and expanded
bilateral economic cooperation will be taken up by the U.S. and North Korea
when liaison offices are opened in Washington and Pyongyang some time next
year, he said.
NNNN
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