Looks like that whole treaty thing was nothing more than a big joke......

 

North Korea Demands Nuke Reactor From U.S.

Associated Press | September 20, 2005

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States first provides an atomic energy reactor, casting doubt on its commitment to a breakthrough agreement reached at international arms talks.

 

The North insisted during arms talks that began last week in Beijing that it be given a light-water reactor, a type less easily diverted for weapons use, in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons. The agreement reached at the talks' end Monday - the first since the negotiations began in August 2003 - says the six countries in the negotiations will discuss the reactor issue "at an appropriate time."

 

Both the United States and Japan, members of the six-nation disarmament talks, rejected the North's latest demand.

 

"This is not the agreement that they signed and we'll give them some time to reflect on the agreement they signed," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in New York, where he was with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at meetings of the U.N. Security Council.

 

"The Japanese side has continuously said that North Korea's demand is unacceptable," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

 

The Beijing agreement called for the North to abandon it arms efforts and accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in exchange for energy, economic and security aid.

 

But the North's statement Tuesday indicated it was again raising the reactor demand as a prerequisite for disarming.

 

"We will return to the NPT and sign the safeguards agreement with the IAEA and comply with it immediately upon the U.S. provision of LWRs, a basis of confidence-building to us," the North's Foreign Ministry said in the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

 

"The U.S. should not even dream of the issue of (North Korea's) dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing LWRs," the North said.

 

The impact of the North's statement wasn't immediately clear. During the years of debate over its weapons program, the communist nation has sometimes given confusing or dramatic statements as it publicly maneuvers for negotiating leverage.

 

Other countries at the talks made clear that the reactor could only be discussed after the North rejoins the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and accepts inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency - which North Korea pledged to do in Monday's agreement.

 

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli emphasized earlier in Washington that the "appropriate time" for discussing the reactor means only after the North comes in compliance with those conditions.

 

"It's a theoretical proposition in the future, contingent on dismantling having taken place, resigning up to the NPT and having IAEA safeguards in place," he said Monday in Washington.

 

The North's position is likely to be a major sticking point in talks slated to begin in early November on implementing Monday's agreement.

 

The North had demanded during the six-nation talks in Beijing - which include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas - that it be allowed to keep a civilian nuclear program for power generation after it disarms.

 

But the United States strongly opposed the demand, and Monday's agreement only acknowledged that the North had "stated" its claim to that right.

 

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has opposed anything resembling a 1994 U.S.-North Korea agreement, which promised the North two light-water reactors for power. That project stalled amid the current crisis that broke out in late 2002 over the North's resumed nuclear weapons program.

 

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1331...html?ESRC=eb.nl

Another article:

 

SEOUL, South Korea ? Less than 24 hours after diplomats announced a breakthrough pact to eliminate nuclear arms in North Korea, the isolated communist state threw cold water on the deal today, saying it would not abandon its weapons program until the United States gives it a light-water nuclear reactor.

 

North Korea's demand could be a deal breaker. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator at the six-nation nuclear talks, made it clear at the opening of negotiations in Beijing last week that the idea of providing North Korea with a reactor before disarmament would be a "nonstarter."

 

No one is sure if the North can make a weapon small enough to mount on a warhead, or a missile that can deliver an accurate strike. North Korea has tested missiles that can reach Japan, China, South Korea and possibly parts of the United States, including the West Coast.

 

After four rounds of discussions spanning several years, the United States, North and South Korea, Japan, Russia and China said yesterday that they had agreed on a vaguely worded plan under which North Korea promised to dismantle its nuclear weapons in return for energy assistance, eventual U.S. and Japanese diplomatic recognition and a pledge by Washington that it would not attack the country.

 

The agreement also said the United States and other nations would discuss giving North Korea a light-water reactor for generating electricity, though it skirted the question of when. It said only that the possibility would be considered "at an appropriate time."

 

But the North Koreans made it clear today that they are in no mood to defer their reward.

 

In a blunt statement, North Korea's official KCNA news service warned that "the U.S. should not even dream of the issue of [North Korea's] dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing" a light-water reactor, which it called "a physical guarantee for confidence-building."

 

Should the United States insist on the dismantling of North Korea's atomic weapons before the provision of light-water reactors, the statement said, "there will be no change in the nuclear issue."

 

Even though difficulties were expected to arise in the coming months as diplomats sought to iron out the details of yesterday's pact, the speed with which the Pyongyang regime punctured the celebratory mood was surprising.

 

Late yesterday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack made a terse statement about the North Korean demand, telling reporters in New York, "This is not the agreement that they signed, and we'll give them some time to reflect."

 

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura called North Korea's demand "unacceptable."

 

In Washington, experts said that although North Korea's statement did not completely annul what was achieved in Beijing, it would not help the next round of talks, scheduled for November.

 

"I don't think it blows up the deal. What it does is underline how difficult the process remains," said Robert Einhorn, who was a top player in North Korean negotiations with the Clinton administration.

 

Einhorn pointed out that the document signed in Beijing was only the vaguest statement of shared principles. "This wasn't a big substantive reconciliation. This was an agreement to set aside a disagreement and move ahead with the talks."

 

Proliferation experts and intelligence reports indicate that North Korea has extracted enough material from a nuclear reactor it established at its Yongbyon complex to produce several nuclear weapons.

 

The U.S. is building a state-of-the-art missile interceptor system, partly in Alaska, for defense against hostile nations such as North Korea.

 

Before North Korea's announcement today, President Bush and others cautiously welcomed yesterday's development.

 

"They have said ? in principle ? that they will abandon their weapons programs," Bush said of North Korea. "And what we have said is, 'Great. That's a wonderful step forward.' But now we've got to verify whether that happens."

 

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei, whose organization would play a key role in verifying North Korea's disarmament, likewise hailed the announcement as "very welcomed news" but was cautious about the details.

 

"We'll see how this proposal will be translated into specific details," he said in Vienna, Austria, where the IAEA is headquartered.

 

Experts say the hardest part of the proposal would be getting North Korea to accept an intrusive presence of weapons inspectors to verify that its nuclear programs have been fully dismantled.

 

ElBaradei and others noted that it has been 12 years since there was a regular inspection program in North Korea. The country suspended its membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993, and put limitations on IAEA inspections even at its one designated nuclear facility at Yongbyon. It finally withdrew from the treaty in 2002 and kicked out inspectors.

 

Pierre Goldschmidt, a former deputy director-general of the IAEA who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it would be "very important" for the agency to have "extensive rights to go anywhere they want."

 

Gary Schmitt, executive director of the neoconservative Center for the New American Century in Washington, was skeptical that rigorous inspections would be possible.

 

"You'll never find a perfect verification deal with North Korea. There's not enough inspectors in the world to make that happen," he said. "The question is whether you can [keep] them so busy keeping things hidden that they become operationally less effective. I have serious doubts that we'll get that kind of inspection regime."

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nati...oreanuke20.html

Idiots.