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State's Schulte Says North Korea Now Must Implement Commitments

23 September 2005

North Korea agrees to return to international nuclear safeguards

North Korea has committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and soon will resume adhering to international nuclear safeguards, says the chief U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"This commitment is an important step toward achieving our goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula by achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all North Korean nuclear weapons and nuclear programs," Ambassador Gregory Schulte told the IAEA board of governors September 21 in Vienna, Austria, where the group is based.

The Six-Party Talks among North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States were expected to resume in Beijing sometime in November.

A significant breakthrough occurred during talks in Beijing September 19 when North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid, security guarantees and increased diplomatic recognition. (See related article.)

"North Korea must now move rapidly, along with the other parties, to implementation," Schulte said.  "As [U.S.] Ambassador [Christopher] Hill, our chief negotiator, has stated, all elements of North Korea's past and present nuclear programs -– including plutonium and uranium -– and all nuclear weapons will be comprehensively declared and eliminated, and will not be reconstituted in the future."

Schulte also said that North Korea must cooperate so that its declarations can be verified.

"The parties have offered North Korea energy assistance, economic cooperation, and security assurances," he said.  "The United States has offered North Korea an opening to the normalization of relations, once denuclearization is complete."

For more information, see U.S. Policy Toward North Korea.

Following is the text of Schulte's remarks:

(begin text)

IAEA Board of Governors Meetings
September 2005
Vienna, Austria

U.S. Statement on Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the IAEA Board of Governors

Agenda Item 6 (c): Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement between the Agency and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Statement delivered by Ambassador Greg Schulte

Madam Chair,

North Korea has now committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the [Nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty and IAEA safeguards.  This commitment is an important step toward achieving our goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula by achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all North Korean nuclear weapons and nuclear programs.  This commitment was embodied in a Joint Statement from the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks just concluded in Beijing.

The next phase of the Six-Party Talks is critical and urgent -– implementation of North Korea's commitments and the measures that the United States and other parties will provide in return.  North Korea must now move rapidly, along with the other parties, to implementation.

As Ambassador Hill, our chief negotiator, has stated, all elements of North Korea's past and present nuclear programs –- including plutonium and uranium –- and all nuclear weapons will be comprehensively declared and eliminated, and will not be reconstituted in the future.

North Korea must take all steps necessary to permit the verification of the correctness and completeness of its declarations of nuclear materials and activities.  Full implementation of IAEA safeguards will be an important part of implementing the Joint Statement.  We will work with the Agency to ensure it is fully prepared to resume this role.

The parties have offered North Korea energy assistance, economic cooperation, and security assurances.  The United States has offered North Korea an opening to the normalization of relations, once denuclearization is complete.  These are benefits that Pyongyang has long sought.  And they are benefits that address the needs of the North Korean people much more effectively than nuclear programs ever will.

We believe that the principles in the Joint Statement give North Korea a hopeful vision of the future, in which trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges will replace the divisions of the past.  We want North Korea to join with us in building a peaceful, stable future for Northeast Asia.

We look forward to working with all of the other parties, including North Korea, to move rapidly in the Six-Party Talks on an agreement to implement the goals outlined in the Joint Statement.  Any transfer of nuclear material, or a nuclear weapon or missile test, would undermine the basis for the settlement that we hope to achieve.

While the nuclear issue is critical, North Korea also needs to address other issues that divide it from the international community.  North Korea must abandon its criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking, counterfeiting, weapons proliferation, smuggling and illicit transfers.  The time has come for North Korea to join the international community and to earn access to the political, economic and security benefits of normalized international relations, trade, investment and assistance.

Madam Chair,

The threat of nuclear proliferation is at the top of the world's agenda.  North Korea has represented one of three major challenges to the international nonproliferation regime.  A second is illicit trafficking networks.  A third will be covered under our next agenda item.

While North Korea is obviously a unique case, and much difficult work remains to be done, it is worth drawing some lessons.  Despite concerns at the time, the Board complied with its obligation under the Statute to report North Korea's noncompliance to the U.N. Security Council.  Despite North Korea's threats and provocations, the international community maintained its resolve and solidarity.  And international pressure, embodied in the Six-Party approach and backed by the whole United Nations, demonstrated to Pyongyang that a peaceful, diplomatic solution was preferable to the reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)