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KEDO, NK to Discuss Future of Project

2003-12-10

Senior nuclear experts at the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization will hold two-day talks with North Koreans starting Wednesday on the future of the beleaguered project to build two light water-reactor power plants.

Deputy Executive Director Kim Young-mok and 15 others from the KEDO secretariat and executive board member countries departed for the site at Geumho, eastern North Korea, by boat from Sokcho Port in South Korea.

Throughout the two-day talks, the two sides will discuss what to do after the recent one-year suspension of the $4.6 billion project ends, officials said, including how to preserve the site for a possible resumption of work.

"The two sides need to work out details on how many caretakers are needed at the site to prevent a decay of the facilities," said Park Heung-ryeol who oversees KEDO-related policies at Seoul's Unification Ministry.

South Korea, which foots 70 percent of the bill, wants to resume the project after the ongoing nuclear crisis is resolved. The United States has been cold to the idea.

Also on the agenda is getting North Korea to agree to a removal of equipment such as bulldozers and cranes worth $500 million from the site. Pyongyang has threatened to block such a move.

North Korea may also repeat its demand for compensation to make up for energy losses incurred as a result of the delay of the project.

"Because the talks mark the first major meeting with North Korea since the KEDO project was suspended, it will provide a chance to find out their real intentions," the official added.

Dialogue between KEDO and North Korea had been all but nonexistent since the nuclear crisis surfaced last year. Charles Kartman, executive director of the U.S.-led consortium, visited North Korea last month and got the North Koreans to agree to the meeting.

Some 300 South Korean workers remain on the site in Geumho, where the project is only one-third finished after six years of planning and construction. Most of them will be returned to South Korea by next March.

Source : www.korea.net