(Photo from Virtual Tourist)US Confident It Can Assess DPRK’s Plutonium -- The News
TOKYO: The top US nuclear envoy said he remained confident of learning how much plutonium North Korea had produced but added the next round of disarmament talks was unlikely to be held this month, in an interview published on Sunday.
US diplomat Christopher Hill, who visited Pyongyang earlier this month, also told the Asahi Shimbun that he felt “something happened” to the decision-making process in North Korea, amid reports that leader Kim Jong-Il had been seriously ill.
He said logistical and scheduling difficulties had prevented the six parties to the disarmament talks from organising a new round in October.
The nuclear disarmament pact got back on track last week after the United States took North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying an agreement had been reached on steps to verify Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament.
In the interview in Hawaii, Hill said determining the amount of weapons grade plutonium was the most important issue for the forum, which involves the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Disablement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities should be completed by the end of this year, a bit later than officials had hoped, Hill told the paper.
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My Comment: The key line in this news report is the following:
US diplomat Christopher Hill, who visited Pyongyang earlier this month, also told the Asahi Shimbun that he felt “something happened” to the decision-making process in North Korea, amid reports that leader Kim Jong-Il had been seriously ill.
An interesting choice of words.
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