US says NKorea must hand over plutonium

US says NKorea must hand over plutonium

	Published : Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:11 By : Agencies Print this Story

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The top US nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that North Korea would have to hand over the plutonium it created with its atomic weapons programme to make further progress on an aid-for-disarmament deal.

Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state, said the North possessed 50 kilograms of plutonium that would become the focus of international talks on North Korea in the new year.

'The issue will be to get this 50kg,' he said. 'We need to get the North Koreans to agree to abandon this 50kg. That's going to be the toughest sell.'

Hill insisted the plutonium was crucial in advancing the six-way talks that led to the landmark February deal, under which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes for aid and diplomatic concessions.

'They need to understand that we will not normalize (relations) with North Korea, we will not see their way into international organizations, there will be limits to the kinds of economic systems we can all provide unless they make the decision to finally do away with this 50kg,' Hill said.

But the US diplomat said an agreement on the material -- which has never been publicly admitted by North Korea -- would lead to sweeping moves toward peace.

'If we do get to this point where we are down to 50kg, one thing we have agreed to start with them is the peace process on the Korean Peninsula,' he said.

'I think we would be able to reach a peace treaty where North Korea would be accepted as part of the landscape on the Korean Peninsula,' he said.

'The DMZ with South Korea, one the most heavily fortified spots in the world, would be replaced as an international border,' he said, referring to the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

'Frankly there'd be a lot in it for North Korea.'

Pyongyang has agreed to disable key facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex and declare all other nuclear programmes by year's end under the deal.

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