S. Korea in dilemma over energy assistance for N. Korea

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is struggling to determine when it should
send 3,000 tons of steel plates to North Korea, confronted with the communist
neighbor's intensifying saber-rattling, government officials here said Wednesday.
The South initially planned to send the shipment, equivalent to 11,000 tons of
heavy fuel oil, sometime this month, as part of its promised contribution to an
aid-for-denuclearization deal signed in 2007.
North Korea agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities in return for one
million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in energy assistance in a
compromise reached with its nuclear bargaining partners -- South Korea, the U.S.,
China, Russia and Japan.
The U.S. and Russia have already completed the delivery of their shares, with
China expected to ship its remaining 60,000 tons by early March. South Korea has
55,000 tons in outstanding aid, while Japan continues to tie its share of 200,000
tons to the unsettled issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades
ago.
When South Korean nuclear negotiator Hwang Joon-kook made a rare trip to
Pyongyang in January, North Korean officials expressed hope that Seoul would wrap
up energy assistance as early as possible.
"We have missed several chances to send the steel plates because of North Korea's
continued threats," a senior foreign ministry official said, asking not to be
named. "How can we talk about the assistance in public under the current
circumstances?"
Reports emerged this week that North Korea is preparing to test-launch an
intercontinental ballistic missile, and Pyongyang recently made back-to-back
verbal threats of an armed conflict with the South.
Late last month, the North Korean military declared "all-out confrontational
posture" against South Korea and Pyongyang's top agency on Seoul sounded the
death knell for all inter-Korean reconciliatory agreements.
"It is hard to predict when we will send the steel plates. For now, we are not
even seriously considering the timing," the official said. "North Korea should
first change its attitude."
He acknowledged worries over the logistical cost burden of the steel plates,
which have been stored near the Pyeongtaek port, south of Seoul, for nearly three
months.
"It could be regarded as the cost for long-term inter-Korean relations," he said,
but did not elaborate the exact amount of the cost.
South Korea has also put on hold its feasibility study for the proposed purchase
of about 14,800 unused fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear site amid ever-worsening
ties with Pyongyang, he added.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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