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Technical Meetings Begin in North Korea Nuclear Talks

01 August 2007

Working groups to meet in August, Six-Party Talks expected in September

Washington -- Diplomats from six nations will begin working in early August on the technical details of an agreement aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, a senior U.S. official says.

The five working groups established February 13 during the Six-Party Talks will meet in August, and another meeting of the six parties probably will take place at the beginning of September, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said August 1 during the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Manila, the Philippines.

"The denuclearization working group will be in Beijing.  The Northeast Asia working group will be in Moscow," Hill said.  One of a series of bilateral meetings involving the United States and North Korea will be held in a Southeast Asian nation to be determined later, he continued.

The six-party negotiating process involves North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

North Korea shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in July as part of an arrangement with the five other nations in return for energy assistance.  Hill said the parties hope to complete the second phase outlined in the February 13 agreement, in which North Korea will provide a complete declaration of all its nuclear programs and disable all existing nuclear facilities, by the end of 2007. (See related article.)

Hill emphasized that the working group meetings are essential in defining precisely what is involved in nuclear disablement – how long it will take, and what steps are involved.

The six nations also are looking at fuel oil equivalents such as building fuel storage capacity in North Korea, buying electricity or refurbishing electricity plants.  Under the current plan, North Korea is being supplied with about 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil a month to support the country's energy needs.

Once the technical questions are resolved, it will be possible to determine if all of this can be done by the end of this year, Hill said.

In talks with Chinese counterparts at the ASEAN Forum, Hill said both sides agreed that "this is a real bright spot in U.S.-China relations, and we want to continue to cooperate on this issue."

A transcript of Hill's remarks is available on the State Department Web site.

For more information on U.S. policy, see The U.S. and the Korean Peninsula.

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