Hill warns N Korea on deadlines

By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Published: February 23 2007 05:47 | Last updated: February 23 2007 05:47

North Korea must stick to the tight deadlines of the new deal to freeze its Yongbyon nuclear facility in exchange for a modest amount of fuel oil, Christopher Hill, the US negotiator at the six-party nuclear talks, said on Thursday.

Describing the 60-day deadline agreed to on February 13 as “very short” and one that required a “considerable amount of negotiation”, Mr Hill conceded that potentially serious sticking points lay ahead.

“We need to avoid, above all, missing deadlines,” Mr Hill told the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank. “When you start missing deadlines, it’s like a broken window theory. One window is unrepaired. Before you know it, you’ll have a lot of broken windows and nobody cares.”

Mr Hill stressed that the shutting down of Yongbyon and the return of international inspectors within 60 days was just the first step of a much longer process. The ultimate goal, which North Korea signed up to in September 2005, is denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

During the first 60 days, in which North Korea is to receive 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil for its depleted power stations, Pyongyang has also committed to discussing a list of all its nuclear programmes, and to later provide a complete declaration.

Mr Hill anticipated “problems” with that declaration, noting that North Korea had refused to acknowledge the existence of what the US alleges is a secret uranium enrichment programme. However he also indicated that the US did not believe Pyongyang had mastered the enrichment process.

North Korea carried out an underground test explosion last October and is believed to have enough reprocessed plutonium for some eight to 10 bombs.

North Korea’s demand to be taken off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism would take “some time”, Mr Hill said.

Foreign ministers of the six nations, which also include hosts China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, are to meet in Beijing in April to review any progress.

Within 30 days, the US and North Korea are to set up a bilateral working group to start discussions on normalising relations. Mr Hill made clear that process would only conclude when North Korea had dismantled its entire nuclear programme.

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / North Korean nuclear crisis - Hill warns N Korea on deadlines