N. Korea warns no more dismantlement unless Japan gives energy aid+

BEIJING, Dec. 29 Kyodo -
A senior North Korean diplomat warned Monday that his government will suspend
disablement of its nuclear facilities unless Japan fulfils its obligation to
provide North Korea with energy assistance under a six-party deal.
''Unless Japan implements the heavy fuel assistance, the (disablement)
activities will be suspended,'' the Beijing-based diplomat, who is a
participant in the six-party talks, was quoted as saying by Japanese
parliamentarian Yoshihiro Kawakami after their meeting in the Chinese capital.
Kawakami, a member of the House of Councillors from the Democratic Party of
Japan, told Kyodo News that the North Korean Embassy diplomat strongly
criticized Japan's policy of refusing to provide energy aid until there is
progress in resolving a bilateral dispute involving North Korea's past
abduction of Japanese nationals.
The diplomat also said 90 percent of disablement work at the Yongbyon nuclear
complex, which is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, has been
completed under the terms of last year's denuclearization-for-aid deal reached
among the six parties, which also include the United States, South Korea, China
and Russia.
As for the remaining 10 percent, that depends on Japan's willingness to fulfill
its obligations under the deal, the diplomat said, according to Kawakami, who
is a secretary general of a nonpartisan parliamentary league formed to promote
normalization of Japan-North Korea diplomatic relations.
Under last year's deal, North Korea was promised energy aid equivalent to a
total of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil in exchange for the disablement and
for submitting a list of its nuclear programs.
Japan's backing away from its obligation constitutes a ''violation of the
agreement,'' the diplomat was quoted as saying.
In recent months, North Korea has already slowed the pace of the disablement to
a snail's pace because the promised aid has yet to be delivered in full.
Besides Japan, the United States has said it will provide no more oil shipments
until North Korea agrees in writing to a verification regime that details
specific ways of checking the accuracy of the information it provided about its
nuclear programs.
On the dispute with Japan over North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens in
the 1970s and 1980s, Kawakami said the North Korean diplomat told him that he
believes Pyongyang has already launched, administratively, a committee to
reinvestigate the abduction cases, but he indicated the investigations have not
commenced.
''If Japan ends its economic sanctions, the investigations will undoubtedly
proceed,'' the diplomat was quoted as saying.
North Korea had in August promised Japan it would launch such a committee in
September, but it subsequently suspended the launch, saying it wanted to first
confirm the policy of the new Japanese administration of Prime Minister Taro
Aso, who took office Sept. 24 following the abrupt resignation of his
predecessor Yasuo Fukuda.
In exchange for the reinvestigations, Japan was to lift some of its sanctions
on North Korea such as a ban on charter flights and restrictions on people's
visits between the countries.
Japan and North Korea are divided over the number of Japanese nationals
abducted by North Korean agents and over the fates of some of them, including
whether they are still alive.
Of the 17 abductees on Japan's official list, five returned to Japan in October
2002. North Korea said in 2002 that eight had died while two had never entered
the country. Japan later added two others to the list to bring it up to 17.
==Kyodo
2008-12-29 21:49:25