American specialists who met with North Korean officials said Tuesday that Pyongyang gave them information that could help reassess the country's nuclear stockpile.
They said North Korea also described a roughly two-phase denuclearization that in the end would require getting light-water reactors.
David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector and now president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told Yonhap that he obtained new information that shed light on how much more nuclear material the North recently produced.
But he declined to provide further details, saying he wants to wait until he completes a report to be presented next week.
Joel Wit, a former State Department official who visited North Korea with Albright, said Pyongyang explained a phased nuclear dismantlement and the expected incentives from other countries at each stage.
For a freeze of its main reactor in Yongbyon, the North wants heavy fuel oil, which the U.S. in the past provided under a 1994 agreement, and a "commitment" by the United States to lift economic restrictions in place since September 2005, Wit told Yonhap News Agency in a separate interview.
The next phase would be nuclear dismantlement, which would require the construction of light-water reactors, Wit said.
"They said everything would be possible" if they are given the light-water reactors, he said. The message was that they would give up everything under those circumstances.
The visit by the Americans came just days before envoys will meet in Beijing for the six-party talks. South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the denuclearization forum which, if successful, would have Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons and programs in exchange for a set of economic and political benefits.
After a 13-month suspension, the six-party talks resumed in Beijing in December, but ended without any progress when North Korea demanded the U.S. lift "sanctions" placed on a Macau bank accused of helping Pyongyang launder money before discussing the nuclear issues.
The next round of talks begin on Thursday.
Albright said North Koreans explained the freeze would be of its plutonium or "production and separation program" and that it would allow adequate monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a U.N. nuclear watchdog, to ensure that the facilities are frozen.
The North is asking for compensation in return for the freeze in the form of electricity, either provided directly or as heavy fuel oil, Albright said.
"They (North Koreans) were mildly optimistic," Wit said, "There was more optimism than in the past."
"But there was still some skepticism about whether the (U.S. President George W.) Bush administration would be able to deliver."
Although North Koreans did not make any threatening remarks, they did say that should the U.S. go after bank accounts other than those in Macau, they would "take measures to strengthen their defense," Wit said.
Albright said Pyongyang appeared to be willing to denuclearize, and were not simply stalling the talks.
"The North Korean officials appeared willing to give up their nuclear weapons in a phased process that would start with a freeze of further plutonium production and separation and move to successive phases," he said.
"They did not appear to be stalling or making excuses to protract the negotiations."
Albright has had an ongoing dialogue with Pyongyang since 2003, and he and Wit were invited into North Korea in August last year.
Washingtion, Feb. 6 (Yonhap News)
N.K. gives new information on nuclear materials to American visitors |
