KEDO cuts oil shipments, warns on reactor project

Barring a dramatic change of heart on its nuclear weapons program, North Korea faces a colder and more tumultuous winter. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization decided yesterday to suspend heavy fuel oil deliveries after the shipment now en route is delivered. The organization's executive board, composed of representatives from the governments of South Korea, Japan, the United States and the European Union, also warned that "other KEDO activities with North Korea will be reviewed."

The meeting in New York culminated a month of intense diplomacy by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to synchronize their policies on the North after Pyeongyang's revelation to a visiting U.S. diplomat that it had run a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement that established the multinational energy aid.

The board condemned the North for its program to enrich uranium for weapons that, the board said in a statement, was "a clear and serious" violation of obligations under several international commitments. Future oil shipments will depend on the North's "concrete and credible actions" to dismantle its program. The North's future relations with KEDO and its member countries will hinge on a "complete and permanent elimination" of its nuclear program.

The KEDO decision removed the most pressing issue from the diplomatic agenda and smoothed over differences between Korea and Japan on one hand and the United States on the other. The Korean representative and board chairman, Chang Sun-sup, said after the meeting that there was no serious discussion about halting the light water nuclear reactor project, the centerpiece of KEDO's activities. A senior Foreign Ministry official told reporters that the future of the light water reactor project depends on the North's response to demands that its nuclear weapons activities be stopped. The "other KEDO activities" that the board would review includes the reactors, the Seoul official said. When asked whether the project would continue for now, pending further discussions by KEDO, the official replied, "I didn't say that."

Mr. Chang said in New York that the board would meet again by mid-December to discuss next steps. The Foreign Ministry official speaking here hinted that Seoul was hoping for a positive move by Pyeongyang before then to address the concerns of KEDO and those of the U.S. administration in particular. He highlighted the KEDO statement's endorsement of bilateral talks with Pyeongyang by Seoul and Tokyo, although KEDO has no role in those contacts.

Asked if the KEDO decision could trigger a decision by Pyeongyang to scrap the 1994 Agreed Framework, which resulted in KEDO's establishment, the senior official here said, "I don't think this will give the North an excuse." The underlying understanding on which the discussions by the three countries is based is that a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula must be avoided, the official said.

by Kim Young-sae