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US to deliver fuel to North Korea for compensation

07 February 2008 08:30 (UTC +04:00)

"We have another shipment which we are beginning to get going on this week," said Christopher Hill, the US envoy to the six-party talks aimed at ending North Koreaâ€™s nuclear weapons drive.
Under the deal, the North Koreans would receive about one million tons of fuel oil or its equivalent as well as diplomatic and security guarantees as it moves to disband its nuclear program.
The United States, China, South Korea and Russia have each dispatched 50,000 tons of oil to North Korea since it froze its key Yongbyon nuclear facilities and began disabling them last year.
But Pyongyang, which tested a nuclear bomb more than a year ago, has not met a December 31, 2007 deadline to make a complete declaration of its nuclear programs, despite prodding by the United States and other partners.
Hill said the North Koreans also recently slowed down their nuclear disablement process -- by operating on one shift instead of three shifts -- partly because they felt they had not been adequately compensated for their disablement activities.
"There is a perception among the North Koreans that they have moved faster on disablement than we have on fuel oil," he told a Congressional hearing.
The North Koreans had completed eight of 10 components of the disablement process but only received 20 percent of the fuel oil that was promised, he said.
Hill, who is Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, said officials had secured funding and would begin an "internal process" of making arrangements for the fuel oil shipment to North Korea.
"So we are moving ahead. When it is actually put in a ship and sent I canâ€™t tell you," he said.
But Hill emphasized at the hearing that he was more worried about North Koreaâ€™s reluctance to make a "complete and correct" declaration of its nuclear programs, which could dampen the entire denuclearization process.
Asked by Democratic Senator John Kerry why the North Koreans were hesitant, Hill said they were "reluctant to acknowledge their activities in certain areas because they have denied that in the past.
"They are worried that we would take some of the acknowledgements and start peeling away and will continue to ask more and more questions," he said.
North Korea says it submitted a list of its nuclear programs in November but the United States insists it must account fully for a suspected secret highly enriched uranium weapons program aside from its plutonium activities.
Asked how long President George W. Bushâ€™s administration would wait for a declaration from Pyongyang, Hill said "obviously our president will have to make a judgment" at a certain juncture. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"We intend to ensure that Pyongyang lives up to the word by submitting to the Chinese chair as soon as possible a declaration that is in fact complete and correct," he said at the hearing which was aimed at determining the progress of the six-party talks chaired by China.
The other parties are the United States, Russia, the two Koreas and Japan.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar said he did not believe that US commitment to the six-party talks or determination to ensure the denuclearization of North Korea would change with the election of a new US administration.
He said talks had already begun with the US Congress on the possible removal of North Korea from the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, but it was "not prudent" for the Bush administration to proceed with it as Pyongyang had not provided a full declaration of its nuclear programs. /APA/