U.S.: North Korea agrees to shut down nuke programs

[Sarge]

Amazing what hunger will make you do

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/02/koreas.nuclear.ap/index.html

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- North Korea agreed Sunday to declare and disable all its nuclear programs by the end of the year, the chief U.S. negotiator said -- the first time the communist country has offered a timeline to end its secretive atomic program.

Negotiator Christopher Hill says the agreement bodes well for the six-nation talks slated for later this month.

Two days of talks between the United States and North Korea in Geneva had been "very good and very substantive," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.

The meetings would help improve chances of a successful meeting later this month with Japan, Russia, South Korea and China in six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program and improving relations between North Korea and other countries, Hill said.

"One thing that we agreed on is that the DPRK will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007," Hill told reporters, using the initials for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Hill said the declaration will also include uranium enrichment programs, which the United States fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Kim Gye Gwan, the head of the North Korean delegation, told reporters separately, "We made it clear, we showed clear willingness to declare and dismantle all nuclear facilities." He mentioned no dates.

"We are happy with the way the peace talks went," Kim said.

Hill said earlier Sunday that improving U.S. relations with North Korea will depend on other progress in the talks, saying it "is a relationship that we will continue to try to build step by step with the understanding that we're not going to have a normalized relationship until we have a denuclearized North Korea."

"To the extent that we can move quickly to denuclearization, we can move quickly to normalization," he added.

Hill said both sides also discussed what needs to be done for North Korea to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

He said they also had a good discussion of what North Korea wants to achieve and how it can improve relations with Japan.

He said he expected the next full session of the six-nation talks to be held in mid-September and that it would produce a "more detailed implementation plan for disablement" of North Korea's nuclear facilities.

The meeting in Geneva was part of a flurry of "working group" sessions called for in February's six-nation accord in which North Korea agreed to disable its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and declare and eventually dismantle all its nuclear activities.

In exchange, the economically struggling North will receive oil and other aid. The United States, as part of the agreement, promised to begin the process of removing the country from the terrorism list and work toward full diplomatic relations.

North Korea has already received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from Seoul in return for the shutdown of its plutonium reactor in July.

The energy-starved country will eventually get further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and ending all its nuclear programs, but has yet to set a date by when it will disable its nuclear facilities.

Another point of disagreement has been over allegations that North Korea has a second, undeclared nuclear weapons program using enriched uranium. North Korea said recently it was willing to discuss the issue, although it did not acknowledge having such a program.

Years of tension and deadlock over North Korea's nuclear program -- which peaked with the country's nuclear test last October -- have started to ease in recent months as the talks have made

[Larry]

Good News.

(Is that allowed during a Bush administration?)

[Cskin]

It's all Bush's Fault!! Um...:paranoid:.... wait a minute? :paranoid:

[Sarge]

It's all Bush's Fault!! Um...:paranoid:.... wait a minute? :paranoid:

George Bush stoopid

George Bush Cowboy

Bush/hitler

Stooopid Bush

[isle-hawg]

This if true is great news, as it should help stabilize the region! The cynic in me thinks it has more to do with the failure of the N. Koreans to figure out nuclear technology than anything else. I base this in part on their failure of their "ballistic" missile tests. I think maybe since they figure they can't beat us, lets try and join us?

In any case it appears to be a good sign for us.

[Larry]

Well, or they figure that we'll buy their promise of de-nuke-ification, and we'll throw foreign aid at them, and then 3-4 years from now, when they've built up a good supply of dogs and cats again, they'll change their minds.

But even if that's the case, it's still progress.

[Sarge]

Well, or they figure that we'll buy their promise of de-nuke-ification, and we'll throw foreign aid at them, and then 3-4 years from now, when they've built up a good supply of dogs and cats again, they'll change their minds.

But even if that's the case, it's still progress.

No, that's what Klinton did, which led us to this