2007.02.12: February 12, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Korea: COS - Cameroon: Diplomacy: New York Times: Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Cameroon: RPCV Christopher R. Hill (Cameroon) : RPCV and Diplomat Christopher R. Hill (Cameroon): 2007.02.12: February 12, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Korea: COS - Cameroon: Diplomacy: New York Times: Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

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Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

The American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said diplomatic teams from the United States, North Korea and the other four participating countries — China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — pushed negotiations past a self-imposed Monday deadline into early Tuesday before finally agreeing on a final text. The six chief envoys are scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday) to learn if each nation has approved the deal. The agreement is expected to include some significant concessions by the North Koreans, although they did not agree to give up their existing nuclear weapons. Mr. Hill declined to offer any specifics about the new accord until approval was assured. But he suggested that the pending agreement was essentially the same as the draft proposal that has been under discussion for the past five days — except for revisions in a single paragraph. That paragraph presumably has focused on the question of energy assistance for North Korea. The North Koreans’ demand for huge, upfront shipments of fuel oil and electricity had threatened to scuttle the talks. “Everybody had to make some changes to try to narrow the differences,” Mr. Hill told reporters as he returned to his hotel at 2:41 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He added: “One would hope that we can all agree on this.” Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Draft Accord Reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Caption: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing, China. Photo: Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press

By JIM YARDLEY
Published: February 12, 2007

[Excerpt]

BEIJING, Tuesday, Feb. 13 — Negotiators for the six nations in the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks are poised to announce a new agreement on Tuesday, but they are first awaiting approval of the draft accord from their respective governments, the chief American negotiator said early Tuesday morning in Beijing.

The American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said diplomatic teams from the United States, North Korea and the other four participating countries — China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — pushed negotiations past a self-imposed Monday deadline into early Tuesday before finally agreeing on a final text. The six chief envoys are scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday) to learn if each nation has approved the deal.

The agreement is expected to include some significant concessions by the North Koreans, although they did not agree to give up their existing nuclear weapons.

Mr. Hill declined to offer any specifics about the new accord until approval was assured. But he suggested that the pending agreement was essentially the same as the draft proposal that has been under discussion for the past five days — except for revisions in a single paragraph. That paragraph presumably has focused on the question of energy assistance for North Korea. The North Koreans’ demand for huge, upfront shipments of fuel oil and electricity had threatened to scuttle the talks.

“Everybody had to make some changes to try to narrow the differences,” Mr. Hill told reporters as he returned to his hotel at 2:41 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He added: “One would hope that we can all agree on this.”

Mr. Hill said he had been in frequent contact with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the late-night negotiations and signaled that the United States was satisfied with the tentative deal.

“We feel it is an excellent draft,” he said. “I don’t think we are the problem.”

Qin Gang, spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said early Tuesday morning that “active progress” had been made in the negotiations and confirmed that an agreement had been circulated to the national capitals.

The fate of the deal appears to rest with the North Korean delegation’s winning approval from the country’s authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-il. The deal is expected to require North Korea to close and seal its main nuclear reactor within six weeks and also allow international nuclear inspectors into the country for the first time in more than four years. North Korea would receive energy and economic assistance, as well as security guarantees, but the timetable for these rewards remained unclear.

North Korea had nearly scuttled the negotiations by insisting on a huge energy aid package, including front-loaded temporary shipments of fuel oil. Various reports suggested that North Korea had demanded two million tons of heavy fuel oil and two million kilowatts of electricity in exchange for its approval of any new agreement.

The agreement, if approved, would give fresh momentum to a diplomatic process that on Sunday had teetered near collapse. But it also leaves many of the most difficult objectives yet to be achieved. North Korea still has not agreed to turn over its existing nuclear weapons or weapons fuel, a critical step that is the subject of future negotiations.

The closure of the country’s main reactor at Yongbyon could serve to block the country from developing any more new weapons. The agreement also is expected to establish working groups to address further efforts to shut down North Korea’s nuclear program, normalization of diplomatic relations, energy and economic assistance and a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. The United States and North Korea never signed a peace treaty after the Korean War ended with cease-fire in 1953 and still are without full diplomatic relations.

Diplomats described a frenzied day of meetings as negotiators raced to beat the Monday deadline. The United States and North Korea, after meeting privately on Sunday, held another meeting on Monday. Japan and North Korea also held bilateral talks. The two countries have been bitterly at odds over the North’s past abductions of Japanese citizens. . Kenichiro Sesae, the chief Japanese envoy, told North Korea that Japan would not pay for any of the North’s aid package until progress was made on the abduction issue, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.




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