Disarming North Korea: How it works

North Korea to receive one million tonnes of fuel worth around $300m as part of deal.

north korea nuclear

Stage one

  • North Korea will begin initial steps towards denuclearisation within 60 days of the announcement of the deal.
  • South Korea, China, the US and Russia, but not Japan, will provide 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil or an equivalent value of economic or humanitarian aide in return.
  • North Korea will shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex, including its five megawatt reactor and its plutonium reprocessing plant, within the 60 days and seal all facilities there.
  • It will also allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to access the site within the 60 days.
  • These steps would ensure that North Korea’s ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium is disabled.

Stage two

North Korea will subsequently complete measures to “disable” its nuclear programmes and in return will receive 950,000 tonnes of fuel oil, or the equivalent value in the form of economic or humanitarian aid, from the four countries.

Measures to disable its nuclear programmes include:

  • North Korea will provide a complete list of its nuclear programmes, including the inventory of its plutonium stockpile.
  • North Korea will disable all its nuclear facilities, including its graphite-moderated reactors and reprocessing facilities.

The steps for now do not involve the provision of 2,000 megawatts of electricity that South Korea pledged in a September 2005 deal reached by the six countries. That is now reserved for after the completion of denuclearisation of North Korea.

Improving ties

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A 2004 satellite image of the Yonbyon
nuclear plant [EPA/Digital Globe]

Under the deal the US has agreed to initiate, under a separate bilateral forum, a process to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism within 60 days.

The US will also begin the process of removing trade sanctions against the North.

With the completion of the initial steps, the foreign ministers of the six countries will meet to assess the implementation of the September 2005 deal and discuss security cooperation in northeast Asia.

The direct parties to the Korean War armistice will meet in a separate forum to negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

Working groups

The plan also calls for the setting up of five working-level groups to further discuss:

  • The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, led by China.
  • The normalisation of US-North Korea relations.
  • The normalisation of Japan-North Korea relations
  • Economic and energy cooperation with the North, to be headed by South Korea.
  • A mechanism for peace and stability in Northeast Asia, to be headed by Russia
       
    The six countries will hold the first meetings of the working-level groups within one month. A new round of the six-party talks will be held on March 19.
Source: News Agencies