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North Korea will formalise steps to end nuclear scheme
The five countries working to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme plan to meet in early December with Pyongyang to formalise the process it will follow to verify it has abandoned atomic weapons, US officials said on Saturday.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:04 November 24, 2008
Lima: The five countries working to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme plan to meet in early December with Pyongyang to formalise the process it will follow to verify it has abandoned atomic weapons, US officials said on Saturday.
US President George W. Bush discussed the issue on Saturday in meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of a summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Peru.
Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, the host of the six-party process, talked about North Korea on Friday, and the US president has a meeting later on Saturday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, another participant.
"We don't have a date to announce yet but there is an agreement to have a meeting and so we're just working to make sure everyone's schedules work out before the Chinese would announce anything as to the timing," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
North Korea agreed in 2005 to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives. Pyongyang, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, began disabling its nuclear capability last year.
The agreement almost collapsed a few months ago because the US was slow to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, saying it first wanted to agree on a procedure to verify Pyongyang's statements about its nuclear programme.
Washington took North Korea off the blacklist in October after the two agreed on a procedure and Pyongyang resumed dismantling its Yongbyon plant, which makes weapons-grade plutonium.
The verification steps still must be formally agreed on by the six-party process.
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