Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on May 10, 2008 – 5:09 pm | by FICA |

On May 8 in Pyongyang, the DPRK provided approximately 18,000 pages of documentation related to its nuclear programs to a U.S. government delegation led by Sung Kim, Director of the State Department’s Office of Korean Affairs.

These documents were provided as part of the Six-Party Talks, the goal of which is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. This goal was stated in the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement of the Six Parties. The DPRK has stated that the documentation provided May 8 consists of operating records for the five-megawatt reactor [5-MW(e)] and fuel reprocessing plant at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, where the DPRK had produced its stock of weapons-grade plutonium.

These operating records date back to 1986 and are expected to cover reactor operations and all three reprocessing campaigns undertaken by North Korea. These documents will be examined thoroughly by a team of U.S. verification and other experts.

DPRK is under pressure to fulfill its declaration commitment under the October 3, 2007 agreement. The Yongbyon nuclear complex houses the three core facilities of North Korea’s plutonium program: the 5-MW(e) reactor, reprocessing facility, and fuel fabrication facility. These facilities were operating until they were shut down in July 2007 as part of the Six-Party process.

In addition, North Korea invited back IAEA personnel to monitor and verify the shutdown and sealing of these facilities. The DPRK subsequently agreed in the October 3, 2007 agreement on “Second-Phase Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement” that it would disable all its existing nuclear facilities, beginning with the core facilities at Yongbyon. Since November 2007, U.S. experts have been on the ground at Yongbyon continuously, overseeing disablement activities.

Eight out of 11 agreed disablement activities at the three core facilities have been completed. Work on disablement activities continues. U.S. experts currently are overseeing the discharge of the spent fuel rods from the 5-MW(e) reactor. As of mid-May, more than one-third of the spent fuel rods have been discharged successfully. These actions have halted the DPRK’s ability to produce additional weapons-grade plutonium for its nuclear weapons program.