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NKorea won't give up nuclear
programme: former US official
AFP
Friday April 13, 2007
North Korea is unlikely to honour a multinational agreement on
giving up its nuclear programme, a former senior US official predicted
Friday.
"They'll delay and they'll make small moves toward denuclearisation,
but nothing irreversible," Richard Armitage, a former deputy
secretary of state under President George W. Bush, told a forum
in South Korea.
Under the February 13 agreement, the North pledged to disable all
nuclear programmes in exchange for one million tons of fuel oil
or equivalent aid and diplomatic benefits.
As a first step, it was supposed to have completed the shutdown
and sealing of the Yongbyon reactor and to have invited International
Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country by April 14.
But it has refused to move until it recovers 25 million dollars
which had been frozen in a Macau bank at US instigation. US officials
say the funds have now been unblocked but there has been no response
from the North.
"North Korea will not live up to their date of stopping activities
by (Saturday). They will use the excuse that they haven't actually
gone to Macau to pick up their money yet," Armitage was quoted
by Yonhap news agency as saying.
Armitage, who left the State Department in 2005, said the North
would "try to get as much assistance from the United States
and the international community as possible" while delaying
denuclearisation.
"They are playing a very good game," he said, adding
that the North will keep trying to exploit what it sees as US concessions.
"There is a danger that the United States will be a little
hungry for an agreement," he said. "My government is under
such attack generally in the United States and has not many great
successes recently in the international community."
Armitage said the Bush administration may be tempted into a settlement
"short of our goals" before next year's presidential election.
"As we get close to our election, it becomes more difficult
for the administration to be very flexible on their approach to
North Korea," he said. "At the end of the day, it's very
unlikely that (North Korea) will really give up their nuclear weapon."
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