IAEA Verifies Shut Down of North Korean Nuke Plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the North Korean nuclear plant at Yongbyon is not running anymore. “Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday,” said Mohamed El Baradei, chief of IAEA. Kim Myong Gil, minister at the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said, “Immediately after the arrival of the first heavy fuel oil, the facilities were shut down.” Now, the six-party talks must build on this momentum.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who along with Governor Bill Richardson has been trying to diffuse the crisis, believes that the entire facility can be disabled by the end of the year. The next step is for North Korea to declare all the nuclear material it already has, and confirm whether it has a uranium program in addition to the plutonium produced at Yongbyon. Mr. Kim said that that would happen if the US did things “in parallel.” That is a reference to the lifting of economic sanctions and removal of North Korea from the list of nations supporting terrorism.

Mr. Hill said, “They want some things, we want some things, and we have to sit down and figure out how everything's going to be sequenced.” However, time is becoming an issue. Nori Shikata, assistant press secretary for Japan’s Foreign Ministry, remarked, “The North is already running late on the agreement, and we urge them to carry through with the steps immediately.” Mr. Hill concurred, “If we don’t take these steps a little more quickly than we’ve taken that first step, then we’re going to fall way behind again.” He told reporters, “I certainly have to anticipate that there will be problems in the future because I never thought it would take until July to get this first step done.”

However, there is a new feeling to the discussions. Mr. Hill also said, “With complete denuclearization, everything is going to be possible.” The wiggle room lies in the word “complete,” but a student of history will note that diplomats rarely engage in flights of fancy when it comes to possibilities. They tend to be dour and more reserved in talking about the future.

That said, there is a lesson here for the US. Even a sociopath regime like North Korea’s can succumb to negotiation if there is common ground. That is not to say that every negotiation can be successful; sometimes, nations want or need mutually exclusive things. However, jaw-jaw is better than war-war, and how much better would the world be had the White House worked harder on negotiating with the Saddamites rather than attacking under false pretenses. And it will not be lost on Iran that nuclear North Korea got talks while non-nuclear Iraq-Nam got attacked. Deterrence works.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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