Word: reactors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...cranked-up diplomacy was set in motion by the recent breakthrough in the six-party talks aimed at getting the North to end its nuclear-weapons program. Last month, North Korea struck a deal with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, which produces the plutonium material necessary to make nukes, in return for a variety of economic and diplomatic benefits, including an emergency delivery of 50,000 tons of fuel oil. The Bush Administration's goal is not only a North Korea without nuclear weapons, but also a wholesale thaw...
...ministers of the six nations will convene in Beijing to talk about the next stage: enticing the North to dismantle Yongbyon, rather than just idling it temporarily. In an interview with TIME, Hill says this week's talks included "extensive discussions [about] the next phase, which includes disabling the reactor" at Yongbyon, and he added that further bilateral talks are now scheduled for March 19. Still, he knows this will be a slow process. As Hill said last month: "It is unlikely that the North Koreans will roll out of bed in the morning and say: 'We are going...
...According to Japan's Foreign Ministry, Pyongyang temporarily suspended negotiations after Tokyo demanded that it account for Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and '80s. Considering how tricky talking to the North can be, just achieving the immediate goal-the shutdown and dismantlement of the Yongbyon reactor-would be a significant diplomatic feat. And as Hill is the first to acknowledge, it's a long way from here to there...
...which denuclearization is but one," Hill said, setting the goal as a general thaw in tensions in northeast Asia. The Six-Party agreement prescribes a step-by-step process to verifiably shut down Yongbyon, before the parties reconvene in Beijing to discuss further steps that would include dismantling the reactor. Hill acknowledges that progress towards a grand bargain depends entirely on small steps over the next few months. "It is unlikely that the North Koreans will roll out of bed in the morning and say we are going to make a strategic decision to get out of [the nuclear weapons...
...Still, in a first-things-first process, the focus for now remains on getting the North to verifiably dismantle its existing reactor, which has allowed it to build the six to ten bombs the U.S. believes it has. Getting to the point where the alleged uranium program is the only stumbling block to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula would be, by itself, a significant diplomatic victory. But as Hill himself is the first to acknowledge, it's a long way from here to there...