USA: INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM WITHOLDS OIL SHIPMENTS TO NORTH KOREA FOR OPERATING A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME IN VIOLATION OF THE 1994 TREATY.

Record ID: 640742

  • Title: USA: INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM WITHOLDS OIL SHIPMENTS TO NORTH KOREA FOR OPERATING A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME IN VIOLATION OF THE 1994 TREATY.
  • Date: 14th November 2002
  • Summary: (W6) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 14, 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS: PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS OUTSIDE KEDO MEETING. (3 SHOTS) SV: U.S, KOREA, JAPAN, E.U AND KEDO AMBASSADORS SITTING DOWN TO EARLIER MEETING VARIOUS: JAPANESE AND U.S AMBASSADORS SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER. WS: MEETING SURROUNDED BY THE MEDIA. VARIOUS: PROTESTERS. (3 SHOTS) SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEESOOK KIM, SPOKESWOMAN "YOUNG KOREANS UNITED" SAYING: "We are here to protest what U.S make the decision about the U.S oil to North Korea, we definitely insist that U.S should send that oil to North Korea based on Geneva agreement." VARIOUS: PROTESTERS. (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Politics,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVADRTZC0K6OHZXWEWMTCT7TQT84
  • Story Text: The United States and its European and East Asian allies have suspended much-needed fuel oil shipments to North Korea from December in response to Pyongyang's admission it operated a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 international agreement.
    Diplomats on the executive board of an international consortium administering the 1994 nuclear agreement with North Korea said in a statement after a one-day meeting that its future activities with the communist Pyongyang government hinged on its "complete and permanent elimination" of the nuclear weapons programme.
    "Heavy fuel oil deliveries will be suspended beginning with the December shipment," said the statement read to reporters by South Korean official Chang Sun-Sup at the New York headquarters of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO.
    "Future shipments will depend on North Korea's concrete and credible actions to dismantle completely its highly enriched uranium program. In this light, other KEDO activities with North Korea will be reviewed."
    The group, which consists of the United States, the European Union, South Korea and Japan, decided to allow a 42,500-tonne current monthly shipment of fuel oil, which left Singapore on Nov. 6, to dock in North Korea as scheduled early next week.
    Outside the New York meeting earlier in the day, a handful of protesters from the group "Young Koreans United" held posters calling for both sides to adhere to the 1994 agreement. Spokeswoman Meesook Kim, speaking ahead of the announcement, urged the U.S not to escalate the problem. She said,
    "We are here to protest what U.S make the decision about the U.S oil to North Korea, we definitely insist that U.S should send that oil to North Korea based on Geneva agreement."
    Isolationist North Korea, a country in severe economic decline whose 22 million people face a bitter winter, admitted to U.S. officials in October it was enriching uranium to support a weapons program.
    KEDO's statement condemned North Korea for violating the 1994 deal and other international nuclear nonproliferation treaties.
    U.S. President George W. Bush has taken a tougher stance toward North Korea than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, whose administration negotiated the deal. Last January, Bush named North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran.
    The 1994 agreement called for North Korea to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid in the form of 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil a year. The deal also required KEDO to build two light-water nuclear power reactors in North Korea that cannot easily be converted to produce weapons.
    North Korea's top diplomat in Hong Kong said on Wednesday that Pyongyang viewed any move to halt the oil shipments as a hostile act.
    At Thursday's meeting, the allies showed a united front after days of failing to reach a consensus in talks in Asia.
    South Korea, the other half of the Korean peninsula divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, had urged a continuation of the aid, which is largely paid by Washington. The executive board operates on consensus rather than votes.
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