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Oct 3, 2007 7:43 am US/Eastern
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Bush Praises North Korea For Reactor Shutdown Plan
BEIJING (AP) ―
President Bush on Wednesday hailed an agreement for North Korea to detail its nuclear programs and disable its main reactor complex, a key step toward what the United States hopes will be a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
"Today's announcement reflects the common commitment of the participants in the six party talks to realize a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons," Bush said.
He was referring to the six parties -- North Korea, the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan -- that have teamed up on a deal to shut down North Korea's nuclear program.
Under an agreement reached in February, Pyongyang was required to shut down and seal its Yongbyon reactor facility, which it did in July. The second phase required it to disable its sole functioning reactor at Yongbyon and provide a full description of all its nuclear programs.
Wednesday's agreement calls for that to happen by the end of the year. China proposed the joint statement at last weekend's end of a new round of the six-party talks, and it was accepted by all the parties.
Bush said the deal "will help secure the future peace and prosperity of the Northeast Asian region."
The United States has agreed to lead disablement activities and provide the initial funding for them. Washington also reiterated its willingness to remove North Korea from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism, a key demand of Pyongyang.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said that as part of the agreement, Washington will lead an expert group to Pyongyang "within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement" and will fund those initial activities.
"The disablement of the five megawatt experimental reactor at Yongbyon, the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon and the nuclear fuel rod fabrication facility at Yongbyon will be completed by 31 December 2007," said Wu, who read the statement to reporters but did not take any questions.
The complex at Yongbyon has been at the center of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs for decades and is believed to have produced the nuclear device Pyongyang detonated a year ago to prove its long-suspected nuclear capability.
Since then, Pyongyang rejoined the six-nation disarmament negotiations that involve the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea as well as North Korea. Under a broad agreement reached in February, North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear programs in return for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or other assistance.
Wednesday's statement outlines the next steps in the February deal. Though negotiators tentatively agreed on the statement Sunday after four days of talks, it was forwarded to their capitals for approval, leading to a delay in its public release.
The statement also said that the United States and North Korea will "increase bilateral exchanges and enhance mutual trust" but did not set a specific timetable for when Washington will remove Pyongyang from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism - a key North Korean demand. Arrangements will be made in future meetings between the two on normalizing their relations, the statement said.
In addition the statement reiterated the five other countries' commitment to deliver the fuel oil and other energy and economic assistance as spelled out in the February deal.
Shortly after Wednesday's deal was announced, however, Japan said it would not provide aid to North Korea or lift its economic sanctions against the country because of a dispute over North Korea's past abductions of Japanese citizens.
"There will be no immediate action from Japan. We will wait to see what North Korea does next," Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said. "Japan's policy remains unchanged. We will consider aid once we see progress on the abductions issue."
Tokyo wants Pyongyang to account for its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s -- a main sticking point for the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)