N. Korea puts new demand, may delay nuclear shutdown

Mon Jul 2, 2007 5:34PM EDT

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea has said it wants to get promised shipments of oil before shutting down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, delaying again a key obligation under a February nuclear agreement, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Administration critics of the agreement said the demand was further evidence of North Korean bad faith, but two other senior officials said they believe the agreement was on track and any delay in shuttering Yongbyon would not be prolonged.

Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said last week he wanted Pyongyang to shut down Yongbyon, which produces plutonium for the North's main nuclear weapons program, before holding a new round of six-country talks, expected next week.

But U.S. officials told Reuters Pyongyang had informed South Korea, which is providing the heavy fuel oil, and the International Atomic Energy Agency that it wanted at least some of the heavy fuel oil before the reactor is shut down.

"I think there's a sense that the North Koreans do want to start receiving elements of the 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil as they move toward shutting down Yongbyon," said one U.S. official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity.

After the February 13 announcement, a different senior official who briefed reporters said that there would be no shipment of the heavy fuel oil "until we're satisfied that the shutdown, the sealing, is occurring..."

U.S. officials say Yongbyon is continuing to operate and there are no signs of preparations for a shutdown.

"SLOW ROLLING"

A member of the administration who opposes the deal accused Pyongyang of "slow rolling us again."

But a supporter urged patience, saying the North Koreans just wanted assurances the fuel oil shipments would happen. "We are down to a couple of weeks" when the nuclear reactor will be shuttered, he said.

South Korea will begin shipping fuel oil in two weeks and try to complete the supply in 20 days, its unification ministry said on Saturday, after two days of talks with the North on the details of the energy aid.

Under the February 13 deal North Korea is to receive another 950,000 tons of fuel oil or other aid of equivalent value when it completes steps to disable all its nuclear facilities.

North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China struck a deal on February 13 under which Pyongyang would receive aid and security steps in return for moving to scrap its nuclear arms programs.

The deal was stalled for weeks by a dispute over some $25 million in North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank under pressure from Washington. Following the release of the funds, North Korea agreed to implement the deal.

The IAEA, the guardian of international nuclear safeguards, will monitor and verify the disarmament steps.

After visiting Pyongyang last week, IAEA official Olli Heinonen said the negotiations had achieved an understanding on how to monitor the sealing and shutdown of Yongbyon.

But he said the timing of the long-negotiated shutdown still needed to be worked out between North Korea and its negotiating partners.

On June 21, Hill made a surprise trip to Pyongyang and predicted North Korea could shutter Yongbyon within three weeks, but that target now seems to have slipped.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Monday rejected a six-party meeting to set a date for sealing Yongbyon but said six-party talks to discuss next steps in the Feb 13 agreement would convene "around the time" the shutdown begins.

He said the administration did not have a specific date in mind, only that the shutdown should be "as soon as possible."