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Second phase six-party talks begins

Pallavi Aiyar

Beijing: The latest round of six-party talks aimed at the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula began in Beijing on Wednesday even as the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed that North Korea had shuttered all the facilities at its main nuclear complex.

“We have verified all the five nuclear facilities have been shut down,” Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was quoted by news agencies as saying during a visit to Malaysia.

Earlier in the week, Mr. ElBaradei had also announced the verified closure of the DPRK’s sole working nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

Nuclear negotiators from the U.S, Russia, Japan, the two Koreas and host China met on Wednesday in the hope of agreeing to a timeline for the implementation of the second phase of an accord that had been brokered under the six-party framework in February. According to that agreement, the DPRK will eventually abandon and dismantle all its nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for economic aid mostly in the form of oil, diplomatic concessions and security guarantees.

Pyongyang’s closure of the Yongbyon plant constituted phase one of the accord.

The U.S. envoy, Christopher Hill, has said he is hoping to conclude the second phase of disarmament which would involve a full declaration by the North of all its nuclear activities as well as the permanent disabling of Yongbyon. However, Pyongyang has not given any indication so far that it is willing to abide by a year-end time-frame.

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