The two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan have finally completed the implementation measures of the October 3rd six-party nuclear agreement, taking a step toward a new phase of nuclear verification. The sixth round of the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea convened in Beijing on July 10, nine months after the previous round of talks. The chief negotiators announced a statement of several broad agreements, providing momentum to keep the stalled negotiations going again. Here’s Professor Kim Yong-hyun from the North Korean Studies Department at Dongguk University explaining the implications of the latest nuclear talks.

Last week’s talks are significant in three ways. First, the delegates were able to regain a major driving force to resolve the nuclear dispute. With the six-party talks deadlocked for nine months, the outlook for the nuclear issue had been murky until recently. But the six-point press communiqué released at the end of the negotiations reduced the uncertainty over the future of nuclear negotiations to some degree. Second, the communiqué spelled out North Korea’s second-phase denuclearization measures and reciprocal action plans. Last but not least, six-part working groups will begin to make detailed plans to verify North Korea’s nuclear programs.

The nuclear issue has evolved rapidly in recent months. North Korea and the Untied States reached an agreement on denuclearization in Singapore in early April. Pyongyang submitted a declaration of its nuclear inventory in June, followed by Washington’s decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and the North’s destruction of the cooling tower of its main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. And the recent six-party talks are believed to help accelerate the process of North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement. The negotiators agreed to complete the delivery of economic and energy assistance to the North and to disable the Yongbyon nuclear facilities by the end of October. They also set the timeline for the assistance provided by South Korea, the U.S., China and Russia. Japan refused to participate in energy provision, citing the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea decades ago. The agreements are expected to hush North Korea’s complaints and speed up its nuclear disablement measures. Also importantly, they agreed on several actions to be taken to verify the North’s nuclear declaration. The verification will involve on-site visits, a review of documents and interviews with technicians. Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency will also be invited for consultations when necessary. Professor Kim now talks about what the U.S., China and Japan gained and lost from the recent negotiations.

The U.S. was able to find a motivating force to keep the six-way talks alive, but it is now under time pressure. Envoys agreed on the provision of 1 million tons of fuel oil to North Korea by the end of August and the North’s disablement of Yongbyon facilities by October 31. If they fail to meet the deadlines for some reason, the U.S. may face difficulty. Japan seems to have lost its leverage in the multilateral talks, since it refuses to provide fuel aid. But domestically, Tokyo’s insistence on the solution of the abduction issue is expected to help boost the status of the current Fukuda government, whose approval rating has been hovering in the 20-percent range. Meanwhile, China once again highlighted its status as the host country of the six-party talks by successfully reconvening the negotiations before the Beijing Olympics, which will kick off on August 8. In this sense, China gained the most from the latest talks, compared to the U.S. and Japan.

But the biggest beneficiary of the talks is North Korea. Adhering strictly to the ‘action-for-action’ principle, the North stressed that it would be difficult to complete nuclear disablement and move to the next step unless the promised energy assistance equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil was provided. The North managed to elicit an agreement to implement relevant measures by the end of October. There was also an agreement on verification of North Korea’s nuclear program and materials, but the negotiators failed to nail down the specifics, such as the timing and subjects of the verification. As a result, some experts note that the talks were only half-successful.

Maybe expectations for the much-anticipated talks were too high. North Korea tried to reveal as little as possible, while other participants wanted to know as much as possible. But they managed to reach consensus on verification of the North’s nuclear programs, which will include visits to nuclear facilities, documents review and interviews with North Korean nuclear technicians. I think it is a notable result. But it is a bit disappointing that officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the best nuclear verification agency, will be invited only for consultation, showing its participation will be limited. Also, the members failed to draw up a detailed verification implementation plan, and the difficult task will be passed on to six-party working groups. In this respect, the negotiations came short of expectations.

As for verification, North Korea cited the phrase, ‘a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula’ specified in the six-party joint statement drafted in September of 2005. So, Pyongyang may argue later that South Korea is also subject to nuclear inspections. The statement of the latest talks leaves this possibility open, which is also disappointing. Now the key is whether the negotiators will write up a verification protocol and start the verification procedure before August 11, when the removal of North Korea from the U.S. terrorism blacklist will go into effect. If the North and the U.S. continue to engage in a diplomatic tug-of-war over the scope, level and the method of verification, the nuclear issue might be protracted until 2009 or later, partly influenced by the lame duck Bush administration. As if recognizing the concerns, top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill emphasized that the U.S. would be able to begin the verification process before August 11. But will the negotiators be able to draft a verification protocol that will satisfy both the North and the U.S. before that date?

It depends on whether the removal of North Korea from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsoring countries will proceed smoothly. And the North should gain some practical benefits from the move. The negotiators will likely seek reciprocity when writing up a verification plan. If the measure doesn’t give enough incentive to Pyongyang, the dispute over the terrorism blacklist will continue even after August 11. It is said Washington is considering taking the North off the list, but keeping some restrictions intact that are imposed on countries possessing biological and chemical weapons. I think involved countries need to approach this matter very carefully.

The participants of the six-way talks now face a new, challenging task of devising a verification protocol. Hopefully, the negotiators will be able to find a breakthrough in the verification issue during the working-group meetings, which will be held sooner or later. 　 [Interview] Volunteers Committed to Helping out N. Korean Defectors
The sun is about to set. Young people break into peals of laughter in the hall of the Korea Institute for National Unification, located on the hillsides of Mt. Bukhan, northern Seoul. The young people are practicing their lines, talking and laughing together. They are participating in a training program for volunteers who are willing to extend a helping hand to North Korean defectors living in the South. Organized by the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, a non-governmental human rights organization, the training program invited a total of 100 people, including high school students and collegians from around the country, overseas students and ordinary citizens, to the three-day event, which started on July 9. Here’s Lee Gyeong-seok, the head of the education team, to tell us more about the training session.

The lecturers are North Korea experts and civic activists, and their lectures were mostly focused on North Korea, South Korea and third-world countries. During the debate session, college students who had defected from North Korea shared their experiences with their South Korean counterparts, getting to know each other better. In the evening of the second day, the North Korean defectors performed a role-playing show during which they expressed their difficulties and suggested potential ways to help them in an amusing way. We didn’t mean to deal with the defectors issue lightly, but we wanted the comical show to help the participants think about this issue seriously and build a friendly relationship between them.

The number of North Korean defectors who have found new homes here in South Korea has now reached 13,000. But most of them have difficulty in resettling, due to South Koreans’ biased views toward defectors. With the purpose of helping South Korean citizens overcome their prejudice against the newcomers from the North by better understanding them, the training session has been held since 1999 under the slogan of ‘Learning for Love, Love for Learning.’ A participant shares her opinion.

I attended lectures of a North Korean defector and some professors. I also watched a video describing the North Korean reality. It was interesting to hear a professor talking about his experience when he visited North Korea. He also sang a North Korean song, entitled ‘Person in Your Heart.’ I felt the lines and rhythm were similar to those of South Korean songs. It’s simply wrong to regard the defectors as people who need endless sympathy. I can help them when necessary, but I can also learn many things from them. I think we can share many things with each other. It may be a little difficult, but we can narrow the gap between us.

The young volunteers say they were able to feel the reality of North Korea and the North Korean defectors, something they had only indirectly experienced through TV or radio programs and magazines before now. They also realized how out of touch they were. Most of all, they came to share love and understanding with college students from the North, while preparing for the role-playing show together and holding a debate. The three-day session was a meaningful event allowing them to learn about each other. South and North Korea are still divided, but we hope young people in the two Koreas will achieve unification in mind, at least.