Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

US and N Korea to open key talks

North Korea is due to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor
Senior US and North Korean envoys are due to start key talks in New York aimed at normalising relations.
The meeting is part of a deal reached last month when North Korea agreed to abandon part of its nuclear programme.

The US State Department says the agenda will cover the US designation of North Korea as a terrorist state as well as the possible lifting of sanctions.

Bilateral talks with the US have long been a condition set by the North for abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Oil pledge

Monday's meeting at the US mission at the United Nations brings together the two countries' top nuclear negotiators, Christopher Hill and Kim Kye-gwan.

Analysts say the US will seek assurances that Pyongyang is committed to following through on the nuclear deal, reached during six-party talks in Beijing last month.

North Korea is to receive 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil for shutting down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which produces enough plutonium for one atom bomb each year.

Another 950,000 tonnes of oil have been promised once the reactor has been permanently disabled.

Meanwhile another senior US official, John Negroponte, has arrived in South Korea for talks expected to focus on how to enforce the nuclear deal.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due to travel to North Korea next week to discuss ways of monitoring dismantled facilities.