U.S. Pushes for Thermal Plants

The Bush administration, currently reviewing its North Korea policy, has internally decided to replace the two light-water reactors now under construction with thermal power plants despite Seoul's continued efforts to persuade it against that course, a high ranking Korean government official said Sunday.

The Bush administration is said to have instructed Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to negotiate this issue with South Korea and Japan during his visit to the two countries this week.

The official said, "We will discuss this in detail during the deliberations on North Korean policy to be held on Wednesday and Thursday between South Korea and the United States."

He added, "The United States, which perceives the North as 'untrustworthy,' believes it would be possible to produce weapons-grade plutonium from the light-water reactors and has concluded that it would be a danger to construct them."

Analysts see this move as the first harbinger of a new North Korea policy divorced from that of the previous Clinton administration, based on a skeptical view of the North as an "unpredictable" state.

According to a diplomatic source, the new North Korea policy will be based on verification and monitoring of North Korea's actions.

Another government official said, "Even if the United States consults with South Korea and Japan, it will still have to negotiate with the North. It is therefore unclear whether the United States will be able to implement its policies as desired."

Also in question is the $600 million already invested in the light-water reactors and the sharing of expenses related to replacing them with thermal power plants.

Of the total $4.6 billion in construction costs for the nuclear project, South Korea pays about 70 percent. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, in charge of the construction of the two 1,000 megawatt reactors, has almost finished leveling the site and expects to start the actual construction of the reactors soon.

Meanwhile, Richard Boucher, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said at a daily press briefing Friday that the Bush administration thinks that continued North-South dialogue, including a second inter-Korean summit, would be a positive development.

The administration is reviewing its North Korea policy "in a through manner," he said, and hoped it would not influence inter-Korean dialogue.

He added, "Maintaining a missile launch moratorium is really essential for any future progress in our dialogue" and is a "constructive" step by the DPRK.

At the same time, however, he reiterated that North Korea's missile development and exports, conventional forces, and the nature of the regime were all still "of serious concern" to the Bush administration.

by Lee Chul-hee