China presented a draft plan of initial steps for North Korea's nuclear disarmament Thursday, when the six-nation nuclear talks resumed in Beijing amid hopes for progress toward implementing a September 2005 agreement in which Pyongyang committed itself to halting its nuclear activities in exchange for economic and security incentives.
The plan proposes closing and sealing North Korean nuclear facilities, including a five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, and the provision of alternative energy sources and economic aid to the impoverished North by the other parties to the talks, Kyodo Tsushin agency reported, adding that details of the plan were still to be agreed on.
The delegations of the countries involved in the nuclear talks, ongoing since 2003 and which also include the United States, South Korea, Russia, and Japan, will discuss the plan Friday.
The plan also envisions setting up five working groups to oversee denuclearization efforts on the Korean Peninsula, energy supplies to North Korea, cooperation in the security sphere in Northeast Asia, and relations between North Korea and the United States and Japan.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, hailed the plan Friday, but said Pyongyang should take steps to improve relations with Japan.
"The plan can only be welcomed. It is important to outline further measures to be taken at an initial stage... and to set the framework," he said.
Japan has repeatedly said it will not provide aid to North Korea - even if the latter dropped its nuclear ambitions - until the secretive regime returns Japanese nationals abducted by its security services in the 1970-1980s.
Pyongyang has acknowledged the abduction of 13 Japanese. It has returned five of them and said the others had died. Tokyo insists there were more abductees and demands their repatriation.
But the North declined to discuss the problem at the nuclear talks and accused Tokyo of attempts to thwart the negotiations.
Japan "is intentionally impeding the six-nation talks by raising a problem that is not related to the main topic of discussions - the nuclear problem," North Korea's Central Telegraphic Agency reported Friday.
Citing a U.S. source, Japanese media also reported Friday that Pyongyang was demanding fuel supplies worth $100 million, the revival of diplomatic relations with the U.S. - with which it is formally at war as no final treaty has been concluded since American involvement in the 1950-53 Korean War - and the lifting of financial sanctions in return for halting or freezing its nuclear program and granting UN inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
In September 2005, North Korea signed a "joint statement" committing itself to abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But Pyongyang boycotted the talks two months later following Washington's financial sanctions. Since then, the North has conducted its first nuclear test and tested ballistic missiles.
