International efforts to scrap North Korea's nuclear programmes are at a crossroads due mainly to disagreements over a suspected secret weapons project, South Korea's foreign minister said Thursday. "It is true that we are at a crossroads on the nuclear issue and that's because of the issue of reporting and disablement as well," Song Min-Soon told reporters.
"As to the uranium enrichment programme, we need more consultations among the countries concerned." Under a six-nation pact the North should disable its main nuclear plants by December 31 and declare all its nuclear programmes and weaponry.
But according to South Korean officials, the North is unwilling to give what the United States considers is a satisfactory explanation of a suspected highly enriched uranium (HEU) weapons programme.
Experts have said the US-supervised disablement is going well but may not be completed by year-end for technical reasons related to the removal of fuel rods.
However, Pyongyang has yet to hand over the declaration and Song said the target date may be missed. "What is more important is how complete the declaration will be."
North Korea on Wednesday said it might slow down the disablement work at its Yongbyon complex, according to Japanese media reports from Pyongyang. Foreign ministry official Hyun Hak-Bong cited what he called a delay in energy aid promised in compensation for the work.
Song said the North and its negotiating partners-South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia-were still trying to reach an agreement on the declaration. "Resolving the North Korean nuclear issue is comparable to pushing a rock uphill before it rolls back down," said the foreign minister, himself a former nuclear negotiator.
"But all the countries concerned are making efforts to avoid this kind of situation. North Korea's nuclear issue is like uncharted waters. The most important thing is to ensure progress amid stability." Song said 200 people were working on disablement-a process designed to ensure the plutonium-producing plants cannot be restarted for about one year.
US allegations of a secret HEU programme, in addition to the declared plutonium operation, led to the breakdown in 2002 of the last nuclear pact. In October 2006, the North staged an atomic test but then agreed to return to six-party talks.
In return for making its plants unusable and declaring all nuclear activity, the energy-starved North should receive a million tons of energy aid or its equivalent.
Under a final phase next year, it would dismantle its plants and hand over all nuclear materials in return for diplomatic relations with the US and Japan, an end to sanctions and a formal peace pact on the Korean peninsula.