Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in Beijing today that the work of inspecting and closing the nuclear facilities of North Korea would be a complex and slow process as the UN inspectors and Korea have to gradually build confidence on each other and mend severed ties before settling down to work.
Shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear plant by April this year is an important task of the present mission. Pyognyang agreed to this in the accord signed at the end of the six-party talks in February hosted by China and attended by the North and South Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.
ElBaradei, who was on his way to Pyongyang from China was optimistic and said ‘I hope we will be able to agree on modalities to normalize North Korea’s relationship with the IAEA’. He expressed hopes of North Korea coming back to the IAEA as a full member and re-enter the NPT regime. He will return to Beijing on Wednesday. ElBaradei’s current trip is vital to convince the world that North Korea is sincere about scrapping its nuclear arms.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions caused alarm in the region as South Korea and Japan are fully concerned of the implications, while China doesn’t want to have another nuclear power on its threshold in East Asia. The US is worried of the aggressive posture of North Korea and wishes to avoid war breaking out between the two Koreas in the event of North Korea going nuclear.
It has taken long and painful negotiations to sway North Korea from its overtly aggressive bomb programme and persuade it to agree for the inspections. The inspection and shutting down of the Yongbyon nuclear plant will be a major achievement in recent years and Korea will receive considerable amount of economic aid in return. Initially, it will get 50,000 tons of fuel oil or financial aid of an equal amount. The aid package is worth US $300 million.
Bush was pleased with the agreements reached in February at the six nation talks.
While it is an impatient wait for the signatories to the accord to see North Korea begin dismantling its nuclear programme, there are reports that it is already in possession of about six atomic bombs.
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the February deal, saying ‘It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world. It would only encourage other countries trying to secure nuclear weapons’.
Clearly, a lot depends on how the February accord is implemented and the future measures to cap North Korea’s bomb programmes.
