South Korea and the United States withdrew their last-remaining
staff from the construction site of two nuclear power reactors in
North Korea on Sunday, ending a decade-old project amid rekindled
tension over the North's nuclear ambitions.
Fifty-seven officials and workers, including one US
representative, returned from the North's northeastern coastal town
of Sinpo where a US-led international consortium had worked to
build two light-water reactors for power generation, according to
Seol Dong-geun, a South Korean official.
The reactors - which are a type difficult to divert for military
purposes - were a reward to the North, along with free fuel oil
supplies, for agreeing to freeze and ultimately dismantle its
nuclear program under a 1994 deal with the United States.
The project ground to a halt after a dispute flared again
between the two sides in late 2002 over Washington's allegations
that North Korea had pursued a clandestine atomic bomb program in
violation of the 1994 accord.
The staff's pullout came after the international consortium,
called Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization or KEDO,
decided in late November to terminate the moribund project. KEDO's
executive members are the US, South Korea, Japan and the European
Union.
Before that, the project had been on hold for two years since
2003. It was about 35 percent complete when halted.
North Korea has protested KEDO's decision to end the project and
demanded unspecified compensation from the US, barring the removal
of 93 pieces of heavy construction equipment and about 190 South
Korean cars and some buses from the site, about 200 kilometers (125
miles) north the inter-Korean border.
KEDO was formed in 1995 to oversee the US$4.6 billion (€ 3.8
billion) reactor project funded mainly by South Korea and Japan.
About US$1.5 billion (€ 1.24 billion) has been spent so far.
Since 2003, the US and the North have negotiated in six-nation
talks, which also involve South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, to
try to resolve the renewed nuclear crisis.
In September last year, North Korea agreed to give up its
nuclear program in exchange for aid and security assurances. But
follow-up talks have stalled as the North put forward new
conditions for disarming _ such as its demand for nuclear reactors
for power generation - which Washington says are unacceptable.
The latest talks recessed in November. The participants agreed
to meet again, but didn't set a date.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies January 9, 2006)
