N.Korea ready to implement deal: report
JAPAN: North Korea is ready to implement this week's deal,
under which it would shut key nuclear facilities within 60 days,
Pyongyang's top negotiator was quoted as saying Thursday.
"The talks went well," North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan said on
returning to Pyongyang, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency.
"We are ready to implement the results of the meeting," Kim was
quoted as telling the Russian ambassador and a senior Chinese envoy at
the airport.
China and Russia are two participants in the talks that reached the
breakthrough agreement, along with Japan, South Korea and the United
States.
Under the deal, North Korea would have 60 days to shut down its main
Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow United Nations nuclear inspectors
back into the country.
The energy-starved regime would in turn receive a first tranche of
50,000 tonnes of fuel oil - part of an eventual one million tonnes if it
permanently disables its key nuclear facilities.
The comments came as a senior North Korean official said the
communist country remained on alert against the United States which
continued to try to "strangle" its economy and "tarnish" its reputation.
"The situation still remains tense and acute on the Korean Peninsula
due to the US invariable hostile policy towards the DPRK," said Choe
Thae-bok, speaker of the North's parliament, referring to North Korea by
its official name.
"The US is going reckless in its moves to tarnish the authority and
prestige of the DPRK and strangle it economically by mobilizing its
allies including Japan.
"The DPRK is, therefore, closely following these moves with a high
degree of vigilance," he said in a report to the parliament.
The report was carried by official North Korean media, the Korean
Central News Agency, which regularly issues such anti-US commentary.
Just hours after Tuesday's deal was announced in Beijing, official
North media raised questions about its commitment by saying the deal
required only the "temporary suspension" of its nuclear sites.
Tokyo, Friday, AFP |
