North Korea

Postscript

13 September 2005. The six-party talks resume.

North Korea demanded on Wednesday [14 September] that the United Nations and other nations give it the funds to build a new a new light-water reactor before it will end its nuclear weapons programme … Christopher Hill: ‘Neither the United States or any other participant is prepared to fund a light-water reactor’ … A light-water reactor would cost $2 billion to $3 billion and take about a decade to build, Hill said. The main stumbling block now is Pyongyang's insistence that it has the right to retain a civilian nuclear programme even if it gives up its nuclear weapons. The issue has divided the participants in the talks, with China, Russia and South Korea accepting North Korea's demand, ...