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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Paekhwawon Guest House in Pyongyang on Oct. 7. (Hankyoreh archives)
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Suggestions point to asking Pyongyang to suspend all production of nuclear material
At the current stage, US experts on Korean Peninsula issues say it’s unrealistic to ask North Korea to submit a full inventory of its nuclear and weapon facilities. Instead, they suggested that the US should persuade the North to suspend the production of nuclear material and reveal the relevant facilities. As a corresponding measure, the US could officially declare the end of the Korean War and make a joint declaration with South Korea or hold a multilateral peace conference. Considering that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s fourth trip to North Korea has made a second North Korea-US summit more of a possibility, North Korea’s initial steps toward denuclearization and the US’s corresponding measures will be the focus of discussions during the upcoming North Korea-US working-level negotiations. During an interview with Voice of America (VOA) on Oct. 12, Robert Einhorn, former US Department of State special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control, advised against asking the North Koreans to hand over a complete and comprehensive inventory of nuclear weapons and facilities from the very beginning. Einhorn instead suggested asking the North to disclose and suspend all activities related to the production of nuclear materials, which would include not only the Yongbyon nuclear complex but other facilities that produce nuclear materials. If North Korea could be persuaded to disclose the location of these facilities before the inspectors paid a visit, Einhorn said, that would constitute a very important first step. The most noteworthy of Einhorn’s proposals was his suggestion that the measures were achievable without immediately disclosing the scale and location of all the North’s nuclear weapons and missile. “That [approach] would not reveal the number or location of North Korea’s weapon or missiles,” he said, adding that the first stage of reporting for nuclear material production facilities might be a measure Pyongyang is prepared to take. Some South Korean experts also claim North Korea could report a primary nuclear list while omitting the actual locations during its process of permanently dismantling its Tongchang missile engine testing and launch sites and the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Jannuzi suggests persuading N. Korea to submit full list of nuclear facilities and production Mansfield Foundation president Frank Jannuzi suggested persuading North Korea to submit a full list of facilities related to nuclear material production as an initial step toward denuclearization, explaining that this would be different from demanding a list of all of the North’s nuclear facilities. He accordingly suggested the top priority should be on obtaining a full list of fissile material production facilities, including the Yongbyon reactor and other highly enriched uranium (HEU) production facilities at Yongbyon and in other regions. Yongbyon is the site of a 5MW graphite-moderated reactor for plutonium production and uranium enrichment facilities visited in 2010 by Stanford University emeritus professor Siegfried Hecker. The US has also alleged that North Korea has other undisclosed uranium enrichment facilities at Kangson and other locations. As a corresponding US measure, Einhorn proposed a “conditional” end-of-war declaration. Declaring such a declaration to be a possible form of corresponding measure, he suggested an approach of issuing “in parallel with any end-of-war declaration [. . .] a US-ROK high-level statement [. . .] that reaffirms the importance of the US-ROK security alliance and the importance of maintaining US military forces in South Korea even after [. . .] a peace treaty is ultimately achieved.” Jannuzi suggested a suitable approach may be for the US, South and North Korea, and China to hold a peace meeting to establish the details of an end-of-war plan rather than attempting to end the more than 70-year long Korean War with a declaration. VOA reported Jannuzi as saying that details on the easing of sanctions – another form of corresponding measure desired by Pyongyang – will be discussed in working-level negotiations, adding that reductions should be weighed very carefully as the results of concrete actions corresponding to North Korea’s concrete denuclearization steps. By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
