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North Korea shuts down nuclear reactor

P. S. Suryanarayana

Stage set for IAEA verification

SINGAPORE: North Korea has announced the shutdown of its nuclear complex at Yongbyon, suspected to be the nerve centre for atomic arms production. With this, the stage is set for a technical “verification” by the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who are already in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the terms of a multilateral accord.

The inspectors arrived at the site by Sunday, but there was no immediate indication about their first impressions. They had earlier said in Pyongyang they would report directly to the IAEA.

The shutdown, a key aspect of the “initial actions” towards DPRK’s eventual de-nuclearisation, was first communicated to the U.S. by Pyongyang. The “actions” were agreed upon by six parties – North Korea, the U.S., China as the host, South Korea, Japan, and Russia – last February.

The DPRK demanded that the U.S. should prove its decade-long claim about having withdrawn all its nuclear weapons that were originally based in South Korea.

Without responding to this new demand, Christopher Hill, chief U.S. delegate to the six-party talks that would resume in Beijing on July 18, said in Tokyo the Yongbyon shutdown “is not an end” in itself.

Seoul said it was also intimated about the shutdown. The DPRK informed the U.S. only after receiving the first shipment of heavy fuel oil from South Korea. Seoul is to supply 50,000 tonnes, in the first phase of the February accord implementation, towards electricity generation in North Korea.

A cumulative energy aid to the tune of one million tonnes of heavy fuel oil from the members of the six-party process, besides humanitarian supplies to Pyongyang, form the centrepiece of the accord on “initial actions.”

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