North continued nuclear-arms project

North Korea has admitted that it has continued nuclear weapons development for several years, in violation of a 1994 agreement, the governments of South Korea and the United States announced Thursday.

The U.S. State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said that the North made the acknowledgment during the visit to Pyeong-yang this month by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly.

Mr. Kelly told his interlocutors that Washington had intelligence indicating that Pyeongyang had "a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons in violation of the Agreed Framework and other agreements. North Korean officials acknowledged that they have such a program," Mr. Boucher's statement said.

The United States and North Korea agreed in 1994 that Pyeongyang would freeze its nuclear programs and comply with international inspections, in return for two nonmilitary light-water reactors to be built by a U.S.-led consortium. The North told Mr. Kelly, however, that it "considered the Agreed Framework nullified," Mr. Boucher said.

Washington called the nuclear program "a serious violation of North Korea's commitments under the Agreed Framework as well as under the Nonproliferation Treaty, its International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement and the Joint North-South Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

The New York Times, quoting an unnamed U.S. official, reported Wednesday that the North Koreans also told the U.S. delegation that "they have more powerful things as well," possibly other weapons of mass destruction.

Urging Pyeongyang to comply with its nonproliferation pledge and to eliminate its program, Washington said it would seek "a peaceful resolution of this situation."

North Korea reportedly told Mr. Kelly that it hoped to resolve the issue through dialogue.

Seoul said it had been notified of the concern immediately after Mr. Kelly's visit. A Blue House statement stressed that "the North's nuclear development should never be condoned under any circumstances."

But the government also interpreted the "candid" admission as "a manifestation of the North's readiness to solve the issue through dialogue." Seoul said it would deliver its concerns regarding the matter at a planned minister-level meeting in Pyeongyang Saturday. The leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan will also discuss the issue at a regional economic conference in Mexico on Oct. 26.

North Korea has not yet responded to the U.S. and South Korean condemnations.

Seoul, for now, plans to send its aid package -- 400,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer -- to the North as promised. Material and equipment for the cross-border railroad projects will also be shipped Saturday. "If public sentiment worsens here," a Seoul government official said, "it will be difficult to give any additional support."

Japan said it would go ahead with diplomatic normalization talks, scheduled for Oct. 29 in Malaysia, and would add security concerns to the agenda, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday.

Pyeongyang's surprising confession puts the light-water reactor project in jeopardy. Construction in North Korea, however, continued Thursday.

The first reactor is about 24 percent done, according to an official of KEDO, the U.S.-Japanese-South Korean consortium that is building the reactors. About $4.6 billion has been spent on the project so far.

"Halting the reactor project will bring serious political consequences not only for Pyeongyang but also for Washington," the official said. "Thus, we do not expect the work to stop unless there is a clear and present nuclear crisis."

by Oh Young-hwan