US Says Little Progress After First Full Day Of Nuclear Talks

NUKEWARS

"The DPRK (North Korea) is quite insistent that they want to include in the agreement a light water reactor ..."

Beijing (AFP) Sep 14, 2005
The US top envoy to North Korean nuclear disarmament talks said Wednesday that little progress had been made after the first full day of the latest negotiations.

"It was a rather lengthy meeting but I must say it was a meeting in which we did not make a lot of progress," Christopher Hill told reporters.

"The DPRK (North Korea) is quite insistent that they want to include in the agreement a light water reactor ..."

The fourth round of six-party talks resumed this week after a five-week break. They aim to persuade the Stalinist North to give up its nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for security guarantees as well as energy and economic aid.

Pyongyang has insisted it has the right to operate peaceful nuclear energy programs and has demanded that the international community complete construction of two light-water reactors.

Under a now defunct 1994 agreement, the two light-water reactors were to have been built by a US-led consortium to replace North Korea's existing graphite-moderated reactors, which can produce weapons-grade plutonium.

But construction was suspended after the United States in 2002 accused the North of developing a secret uranium-enrichment program.

Hill earlier Wednesday ruled out building the reactors for the North, saying they were "very expensive" and "long-term" type of projects.

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NUKEWARS

North Korea Digs In As Nuclear Talks Resume

Beijing (AFP) Sep 13, 2005
North Korea vowed Tuesday to keep pushing for the right to peaceful atomic energy, putting it on a collision course with the United States as six-way talks on its nuclear weapons drive resumed.