CANADA/USA: WASHINGTON SEEKS TO END FUTURE SHIPMENTS OF FUEL OIL TO NORTH KOREA TO PUNISH PYONGYANG FOR OPERATING A SECRET NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Record ID: 640787

  • Title: CANADA/USA: WASHINGTON SEEKS TO END FUTURE SHIPMENTS OF FUEL OIL TO NORTH KOREA TO PUNISH PYONGYANG FOR OPERATING A SECRET NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
  • Date: 14th November 2002
  • Summary: (W8) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 14, 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS OUTSIDE KEDO MEETING (3 SHOTS) WS: U.S., KOREA, JAPAN, E.U AND KEDO AMBASSADORS SITTING DOWN TO MEETING SV: JAPANESE AND U.S AMBASSADORS SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER VARIOUS MEETING (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS PROTESTERS WITH BANNERS (3 SHOTS) CU: (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: OTTAWA, CANADA AND NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: Canada
  • Topics: Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5K25QQT5U7D33RLL7LQY4RYDS
  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that
    Washington was seeking to end future shipments of fuel oil to
    North Korea to punish Pyongyang for operating a secret nuclear
    programme in violation of a 1994 pact. A group of officials
    from South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Europe shared differing
    points of view, some arguing that engagement is the only way
    to bring change to North Korea and that an oil embargo would
    unduly punish already poverty-stricken people.



    U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made the first
    on-the-record confirmation that Washington wanted a halt to
    oil shipments to North Korea. This was in retaliation for
    North Korea's operation of a secret nuclear programme in
    violation of a 1994 pact.

    A Bush administration official on Wednesday (November 13)
    said the United States would stop paying for any more of the
    monthly shipments but would not demand a halt to a
    42,500-tonne shipment that is days from docking in North
    Korea.

    "We believe it is appropriate and prudent to send in this
    shipment, which is already on the high seas," Powell told a
    news conference in Ottawa after talks with Canadian Foreign
    Minister Bill Graham Thursday (November 14).

    "We cannot continue provide fuel in this manner in light
    of North Korea's violation of the (1994) understanding," he
    said.

    Officials from the United States, the European Union,
    South Korea and Japan -- which administer the oil shipments --
    met in New York on Thursday to seek consensus on what to do
    next. The discussions of the Korean Peninsula Energy
    Development Organisation (KEDO) are an attempt to solve the
    looming crisis following Washington's decision to suspend U.S
    monthly shipments.

    Thursday's KEDO meeting provides a chance for Japan and
    South Korea to argue their position. They fall on the side of
    engagement as the only way to persuade North Korea to abandon
    its nuclear weapons programme.

    However, although KEDO runs on consensual basis between
    the U.S, Japan, South Korea and the E.U, Washington holds the
    bargaining chips, seeing as it pays for all of the oil costs.

    It is unlikely that other KEDO members could afford to
    continue with the monthly shipments should the U.S pull out -
    which the U.S. indicated it would do in Secretary Powell's
    comments.

    Under the 1994 Framework Agreement, North Korea is
    supposed to freeze and dismantle its nuclear weapons building
    programme, in exchange for annual delivery of 500,000 metric
    tonnes of fuel oil and the building of two light-water nuclear
    reactors.

    But Pyongyang's surprise announcement last month that it
    had been secretly developing uranium for nuclear weapons,
    prompted Washington to cancel its part of the agreement as
    punishment. Outside the New York meeting, 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 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."
    The stand-off comes as North Koreans are bracing
    themselves for frigid winter temperatures. America's Pacific
    allies fear that if North Korea is denied oil all together, it
    will retaliate by using its spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon
    facility in its programme to make nuclear weapons.
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