Nuclear working group meets over energy aid for N Korea

Seoul, August 7 (Yonhap) -- Working-level officials from six nations in talks on ending North Korea"s nuclear ambitions met Tuesday to discuss provision of energy aid to the North as a reward for Pyongyang"s steps toward denuclearization.

The talks began shortly after a North Korean delegation led by Kim Myong-kil, the deputy chief of the North"s mission to the United Nations in New York, crossed the inter-Korean border to the South Korean side of the truce village Panmunjom.

The meeting will last until Wednesday and focus on how to ship and store 950,000 tons of heavy oil or equivalent aid to the North, which has a storage capacity of only 200,000 tons a year, a Foreign Ministry official said.

"The goal is to set up one of the two pillars of denuclearization, but it will not be easy to come up with a complete action plan in just two days," the official said, adding that the other pillar is complete disablement of the North"s nuclear facilities within the year.

A separate working group on the disablement will meet next week for two days in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.

Chun Yung-woo, the South Korean chairman of the energy working group, told reporters earlier Tuesday it is important for the countries to specify what they require and what they can offer, according to pool reports.

"The important thing is to have substantial discussions...It is important (for North Korea) to specify in details what it wants," Chun, also Seoul"s chief negotiator in the nuclear disarmament talks, was quoted as saying in the reports.

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy in the six-nation talks, hoped for completion of the second phase by the year"s end, but a problem has arisen due to the North"s limited storage capacity.

Seoul and its allies are hoping the impoverished North brings to the table a list of items it wishes to receive instead of heavy oil or accepts credit for the promised energy assistance.

"The success of this week"s talks depends on how good each country does on its homework" before coming to the table, the Foreign Ministry official said earlier, asking to remain anonymous.

Under a landmark accord signed in February by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, North Korea received 50,000 tons of heavy oil from South Korea in exchange for shutting down its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon last month in the first phase.

Pyongyang now has to disable the facilities and submit a complete list of its nuclear programs for the additional heavy oil and other political benefits.

South Korea and the U.S. want the provision of energy assistance to be completed at the same time as the disablement of the nuclear facilities.

But China, the host of the six-way talks, has offered to begin shipping the next 50,000 tons of oil in mid-August, apparently to foster a favorable atmosphere for the second phase of denuclearization.

"It"s a very ambitious timetable...but I think (if) we are not ambitious, we won"t get it done," Hill said last week of his hope to complete implementing the February agreement by the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters after the morning session of the working group meeting, a South Korean official said the North appeared to have brought concrete ideas to the table.

"While stressing that their delegation includes economic and energy experts, the North Koreans said they are fully ready to attend this week"s meeting with a very practical mind," the official said, asking not to be identified.

The afternoon session will likely consist of bilateral meetings, starting with a one-on-one meeting between the chief delegates of the Koreas, according to the official.

The North Korean delegation will go back to the North after the end of the day"s talks and return Wednesday for the second day of meetings, the official said. Delegates from the other five nations are to commute from Seoul.

The nuclear dispute erupted in late 2002 following a U.S. accusation that the North was running a clandestine nuclear weapons program based on highly enriched uranium, in addition to the country"s well-known plutonium-based program. The North has denied the accusation.

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