Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Trevor]

This from today's Herald.

Clearly, the U.S is losing it's foothold on the world stage and was forced to back down to that whackjob in Pyongyang. U.S prestige is slipping faster than...faster than...faster than something that slips real fast.

The world is changing folks. Quicker than I'd like.



(story follows)

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'U.S. backs down on verification demand'





South Korea's top diplomat yesterday indicated that the United States has agreed to inspect more than 10 suspected nuclear facilities of North Korea, which the secretive country excluded from a June declaration, after seeking prior consent from the North.

This, if confirmed, would be a significant retreat from the U.S.'s original proposal in which Washington demanded unlimited, free access to the sites for verification, citing the "international standard."

The concession may free the North from its grudging requirement to open the so-called "undeclared" nuclear facilities to international inspectors, analysts here say.

"In theory, (the envisioned verification) would be different from the 'special inspection' by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at a monthly press briefing. "Within the six-party talks framework, countries should attain the host country's consent to conduct verification in a foreign nation."

A special inspection allows IAEA inspectors to examine what they suspect nuclear installations without prior approval of the host government.

Despite an upbeat signal to the North, the communist country may be preparing for another nuclear test, ABC news reported Thursday.

The report, quoting unidentified senior U.S. officials, said American intelligence authorities have detected suspicious signs of moving cables and tunneling at the site where the North detonated a nuclear device in October 2006.

U.S. officials said Pyongyang appears to intend to heighten pressures against Washington with the regard to the verification protocol deal, according to the report.

The South Korean minister virtually confirmed recent media reports that the United States has agreed to a tentative deal with North Korea, in which Washington will first verify the North's plutonium-based Yongbyon facilities and move later to the more sensitive issues of a suspected uranium-enrichment nuclear program and nuclear proliferation.

But Yu said no decision has been made yet on the verification protocol.

"No final decision has been made by the U.S. government with regard to the verification protocol, so I can't give you details of the negotiation at the current stage," the minister said.

"Since the return of Assistant Secretary Hill from Pyongyang, the coordination between South Korea and the United States has been going on. In addition, the overall discussion on the verification protocol is underway not only within the U.S. government, but also among the nations involved in the talks including China and Japan," he said.

A volley of media reports surged recently that the United States is poised to remove North Korea from its terrorism blacklist soon. Washington had notified other partners in the six-party talks of its intention to delist Pyongyang soon, the reports said. Some U.S. reports suggest the delisting would possibly happen as early as Friday (Washington time).

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy, made the face-saving proposal of separate verification to the North to rescue the unraveling six-nation talks during his three-day visit to Pyongyang last week, according to the reports.

Analysts here say the U.S. government is struggling to gain consensus from other members of the six-party talks on the agreement, and such efforts are a main cause of the delayed U.S. release of Hill's negotiation result. It is also concerned over possible political backlash from domestic hardliners for the compromised deal with Pyonyang, they said.

According to them, Japan is currently considered to be a large stumbling block to an early promulgation of the tentative agreement. Tokyo, who has advocated a complete verification, is dissatisfied with the deal, and is also discontent over Pyongyang's failure in resolving a feud over Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean spies decades ago, they said.

The United States has reportedly informed Japan that it will remove North Korea from its terrorist blacklist this month.

Kyodo news agency reported Japan was prepared to accept the delisting, but would decline a U.S. request for food aid to the North. Tokyo plans to extend economic sanctions on Pyongyang because of a lack of progress in settling the kidnap dispute, the report said.

Analysts said the North's recent provocative moves are seen to aim to pressurize the Washington government to persuade Japan to quickly endorse the Washington-Pyongyang agreement.


By Jin Dae-woong


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