Ari Chi3fs
09-19-2005, 08:31 AM
North Korea to abandon nuclear program
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PM - Monday, 19 September*, 2005* 18:10:00
Reporter: John Taylor
MARK COLVIN: After years of sabre-rattling and growing international fear, the diplomatic crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program may be almost over.
The fourth round of international talks in Beijing has ended with North Korea agreeing to scrap all its nuclear programs and abandon its weapons.
In exchange there'll be foreign aid and diplomatic acceptance.
But perhaps most importantly, the United States, which for several years has identified North Korea as part of an "Axis of Evil", has said formally that it will respect the country's sovereignty and refrain from attacking it.
From Beijing, our Correspondent John Taylor joins us on the line.
John, what does the statement actually commit North Korea to do, and also the United States?
JOHN TAYLOR: The statement commits North Korea to abandoning all its weapons programs, both military and civilian, and not only its weapons programs, but all of its nuclear programs, and also abandoning all its weapons.
North Korea has committed at an early date to returning to the non-proliferation treaty on nuclear weapons, to returning to coming under the auspices of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and in return all the countries have agreed to provide oil and energy aid to North Korea, to if you like normalise diplomatic relations between the two, and the United States has actually committed itself, and stated quite bluntly, that it has no intention to attack North Korea, and indeed respects its sovereignty.
And this is a nation, that of course the US has labelled part of the "Axis of Evil", and an outpost of tyranny.
MARK COLVIN: So they're actually going to decommission their nuclear power stations?
JOHN TAYLOR: That's what they've said. What North Korea has done though is stated that it has the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. But I think what this statement has been able to do is put on the back burner this whole debate about North Korea and a civilian nuclear program.
The United States had said that because North Korea had shown it couldn't be trusted, it had broken a previous agreement, that North Korea should have no nuclear capacity whatsoever.
But it appears that through lobbying by China and South Korea that it's agreed to settle that North Korea can retain the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, some time in the future, and that it will be discussed some time in the future, the provision of light water reactors, et cetera.
But right now North Korea is getting out of the nuclear business.
MARK COLVIN: People have been saying for a while that this would only happen if China really put on heavy pressure. Has that happened?
JOHN TAYLOR: It's really hard to know what has actually pushed North Korea over the line, because for three years this nuclear crisis has dragged on, and indeed just before these talks began a number of experts were saying that they couldn't see an end in sight. Indeed some were speculating that the US would just have to live with a nuclear North Korea.
And so now this afternoon suddenly there's this breakthrough. What it appears, though, is that the US has given some of the ground that it wanted, and also North Korea has given ground, and part of the sticking point has been the sense at which the United States didn't want to reward bad behaviour.
Here was a country that it had made an agreement with about nuclear weapons, and nuclear energy, and that had secretly broken it. And the United States didn't then want to be seen as providing energy and further assistance to this regime, which it's dubbed one of the most repressive in the world, in a sense rewarding bad behaviour.
But now what it seems is this treaty contains, or this agreement contains, the words of commitment for commitment, action for action, which makes me think that it will be a staggered process by which North Korea fully gets rid of all its nuclear capacity and its weapons.
MARK COLVIN: But some people may think, then, that this is actually just one big step back to what was going on towards the end of the Clinton administration, although the Bush administration has been pretty dismissive of those policies, of the Clinton years. Have they now gone back to that, or is this staggered not giving something for nothing approach in some way different?
JOHN TAYLOR: I think the United States has just been looking at the fact that it wants no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, and over the past few years this has emerged as the only way to get it.
People, former negotiators, have said that you have to hold your nose when negotiating with North Korea. And the United States certainly hasn't gotten everything it wanted in the way it wanted but it's at least gotten something. And this is it.
The question now turns to this is an agreement, but North Korea has broken agreements in the past. The devil is going to be in how the United States in particular is assured that North Korea is following its word, because there are going to have to be inspections, which North Korea has agreed to, but they by definition will have to be very intrusive, and with little warning for the North Korean authorities.
MARK COLVIN: So it's all going to be about compliance from now on?
JOHN TAYLOR: That's right.
MARK COLVIN: Okay.
JOHN TAYLOR: And North Korea is a highly secretive repressive regime.
MARK COLVIN: All right. John Taylor, thank you very much. John Taylor on the line from Beijing there.
PRINT FRIENDLY
EMAIL STORY
PM - Monday, 19 September*, 2005* 18:10:00
Reporter: John Taylor
MARK COLVIN: After years of sabre-rattling and growing international fear, the diplomatic crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program may be almost over.
The fourth round of international talks in Beijing has ended with North Korea agreeing to scrap all its nuclear programs and abandon its weapons.
In exchange there'll be foreign aid and diplomatic acceptance.
But perhaps most importantly, the United States, which for several years has identified North Korea as part of an "Axis of Evil", has said formally that it will respect the country's sovereignty and refrain from attacking it.
From Beijing, our Correspondent John Taylor joins us on the line.
John, what does the statement actually commit North Korea to do, and also the United States?
JOHN TAYLOR: The statement commits North Korea to abandoning all its weapons programs, both military and civilian, and not only its weapons programs, but all of its nuclear programs, and also abandoning all its weapons.
North Korea has committed at an early date to returning to the non-proliferation treaty on nuclear weapons, to returning to coming under the auspices of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and in return all the countries have agreed to provide oil and energy aid to North Korea, to if you like normalise diplomatic relations between the two, and the United States has actually committed itself, and stated quite bluntly, that it has no intention to attack North Korea, and indeed respects its sovereignty.
And this is a nation, that of course the US has labelled part of the "Axis of Evil", and an outpost of tyranny.
MARK COLVIN: So they're actually going to decommission their nuclear power stations?
JOHN TAYLOR: That's what they've said. What North Korea has done though is stated that it has the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. But I think what this statement has been able to do is put on the back burner this whole debate about North Korea and a civilian nuclear program.
The United States had said that because North Korea had shown it couldn't be trusted, it had broken a previous agreement, that North Korea should have no nuclear capacity whatsoever.
But it appears that through lobbying by China and South Korea that it's agreed to settle that North Korea can retain the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, some time in the future, and that it will be discussed some time in the future, the provision of light water reactors, et cetera.
But right now North Korea is getting out of the nuclear business.
MARK COLVIN: People have been saying for a while that this would only happen if China really put on heavy pressure. Has that happened?
JOHN TAYLOR: It's really hard to know what has actually pushed North Korea over the line, because for three years this nuclear crisis has dragged on, and indeed just before these talks began a number of experts were saying that they couldn't see an end in sight. Indeed some were speculating that the US would just have to live with a nuclear North Korea.
And so now this afternoon suddenly there's this breakthrough. What it appears, though, is that the US has given some of the ground that it wanted, and also North Korea has given ground, and part of the sticking point has been the sense at which the United States didn't want to reward bad behaviour.
Here was a country that it had made an agreement with about nuclear weapons, and nuclear energy, and that had secretly broken it. And the United States didn't then want to be seen as providing energy and further assistance to this regime, which it's dubbed one of the most repressive in the world, in a sense rewarding bad behaviour.
But now what it seems is this treaty contains, or this agreement contains, the words of commitment for commitment, action for action, which makes me think that it will be a staggered process by which North Korea fully gets rid of all its nuclear capacity and its weapons.
MARK COLVIN: But some people may think, then, that this is actually just one big step back to what was going on towards the end of the Clinton administration, although the Bush administration has been pretty dismissive of those policies, of the Clinton years. Have they now gone back to that, or is this staggered not giving something for nothing approach in some way different?
JOHN TAYLOR: I think the United States has just been looking at the fact that it wants no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, and over the past few years this has emerged as the only way to get it.
People, former negotiators, have said that you have to hold your nose when negotiating with North Korea. And the United States certainly hasn't gotten everything it wanted in the way it wanted but it's at least gotten something. And this is it.
The question now turns to this is an agreement, but North Korea has broken agreements in the past. The devil is going to be in how the United States in particular is assured that North Korea is following its word, because there are going to have to be inspections, which North Korea has agreed to, but they by definition will have to be very intrusive, and with little warning for the North Korean authorities.
MARK COLVIN: So it's all going to be about compliance from now on?
JOHN TAYLOR: That's right.
MARK COLVIN: Okay.
JOHN TAYLOR: And North Korea is a highly secretive repressive regime.
MARK COLVIN: All right. John Taylor, thank you very much. John Taylor on the line from Beijing there.