US to finance North Korea nuclear consortium
AFP
President George W. Bush on Monday indicated he would spend 3.72 million dollars to finance an international consortium charged with implementing a now-defunct 1994 anti-nuclear deal with North Korea.
Bush said in a memoradum to Secretary of State Colin Powell that the money, already earmarked in 2003 spending bills, was vital to US national security interests.
But the cash will cover "administrative expenses only" of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) which represents the United States, European Union, South Korea and Japan.
The Bush administration has requested no money for KEDO in its 2004 fiscal year budget currently being debated in Congress, officials said.
The United States had previously financed heavy fuel oil shipments to Pyongyang required under the deal but cut the spigots last year in the early days of a nuclear showdown with the Stalinist state.
Speculation is rife that the deal, which includes the construction of two nuclear reactors in North Korea, will be formally suspended to punish North Korea as a nuclear crisis rages.
But Washington, hoping for a resumption of six-party talks on the crisis also involving the Stalinist state, has made no formal announcement on KEDO's future.
KEDO was set up to implement the 1994 deal, known as the Agreed Framework, and to provide two nuclear reactors deemed unsuitable for weapons production, plus 500,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil per year to the energy-starved state.
In return, Pyongyang agreed to mothball a nuclear plant and to seal plutonium fuel rods, but has turned its back on the deal, blaming Washington for an escalating nuclear showdown.
The United States accused North Korea of rupturing the Agreed Framework by pursuing an illicit program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. |
