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US envoy visits North Korea in bid to save nuclear deal
A senior US envoy on Wednesday travelled to North Korea in a bid to rescue a faltering nuclear disarmament deal and prevent Pyongyang from rebuilding a plant that made weapons-grade plutonium.
- Agencies
- Published: 08:08 October 1, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- South Korea protesters stage a rally supporting the policy of North Korea's nuclear program in front of the Unification Ministry in Seoul, South Korea. The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea plans to propose a face-saving compromise during a trip Wednesday to the isolated communist nation to try to salvage the derailed disarmament pact.
Seoul: A senior US envoy on Wednesday travelled to North Korea in a bid to rescue a faltering nuclear disarmament deal and prevent Pyongyang from rebuilding a plant that made weapons-grade plutonium.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit comes just days after North Korea threatened to break away from the disarmament-for-aid package and try to start separating plutonium at its nuclear plant that was being taken apart under the deal.
Hill told reporters on Tuesday he would press Pyongyang to accept a system to verify statements it made about its nuclear programme and answer US suspicions of a secret project to enrich uranium for weapons.
"What they have been doing, obviously, goes against the spirit of what we have been trying to accomplish," Hill said on Tuesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that the North was expelling UN monitors from its Yongbyon nuclear plant and planned to start reactivating it in days, rolling back the disarmament deal and putting pressure on Washington.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, started to disable Yongbyon last November as part of the deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The North has baulked at US demands about verification, fearing it to be too intrusive. Washington countered by making clear it would only remove Pyongyang from its "state sponsors of terrorism" list once the North agreed to a "robust" mechanism.
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