Deja Vu

The North Koreans, with whom a deal in principle was supposedly reached regarding its nuclear weapons program, want a nuclear reactor:

North Korea pledged Monday to eliminate its nuclear weapons and nuclear programs in exchange for energy and security, but a day later it demanded that the U.S. give it a light-water nuclear reactor before it rejoins the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ends its weapons program.

The North’s Foreign Ministry made the demand Tuesday after having agreed Monday at six-nation talks in Beijing to give up its arms efforts, rejoin the treaty, and accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

During the talks, North Korea had demanded that it be given the light-water reactor – a type less easily diverted for weapons use – but Washington and other participating countries balked at that demand.
[...]
Both the United States and Japan, members of the six-nation disarmament talks, rejected the North’s latest demand.

“This is not the agreement that they signed and we’ll give them some time to reflect,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. (via LGF)

Boy, if you can't trust a totalitarian Stalinist dynasty, who can you trust?

Posted by damian at September 20, 2005 07:47 AM | TrackBack