(July 12, 1996) KEDO, the U.S., Japanese and South Korean consortium, and North Korea have reached agreement on protocols for transportation and communications as part of a nuclear agreement with Pyongyang, a spokesman for the consortium said on June 17.
(455.4507) WISE-Amsterdam - The talks between the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) and North Korea began on April 16 following a $4.5 billion deal signed in December 1995 to provide Pyongyang with two Western-made light water reactors promised in a 1994 accord in which North Korea froze its own nuclear programme. (see WISE NC 445.4409). In May KEDO and Pyongyang agreed on the text of a protocol on the juridicial status, privileges, immunities and consular protection for KEDO in North Korea. A KEDO spokesman said other protocols on the project site and use of North Korean labour and goods would be discussed "over the coming months" in North Korea and New York.
The 1995 accord was signed after three years of difficult negotiations on replacing communist North Korea's nuclear programme with one that produced less weapons-grade plutonium. Light water reactors are less suitable for producing plutonium for weapons, the purpose for which Washington and its allies suspected North Korea was using its Soviet-model plants.
Sources: Reuter, 17 June 1996
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