Do we have the beginning of an agreement with North Korea over their nukes?
North Korea will provide a complete list of its nuclear programs and disable its facilities at its main reactor complex by Dec. 31, actions that will be overseen by a U.S.-led team, the six nations involved in disarmament talks said Wednesday.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said that as part of the agreement, Washington will lead an expert group to Pyongyang "within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement" and will fund those initial activities.
"The disablement of the five megawatt experimental reactor at Yongbyon, the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon and the nuclear fuel rod fabrication facility at Yongbyon will be completed by 31 December 2007," said Wu, who read the statement from the six nations to reporters, but did not take any questions.
The Bush administration welcomed the agreement, calling it significant progress.
"These second-phase actions effectively end the DPRK's production of plutonium — a major step towards the goal of achieving the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. [emphasis added]
We thought we had an agreement in 1994. So I want to know what the definitions of the highlighted terms are.
Is a "complete list" a complete list or just what the North koreans think we know about? Does the "complete list" include any North korean nuclear assets located on foreign soil (and would that include foreign embassies in North Korea)?
Does "disable" just mean switching them off or other easily reversible step or the permanent disablement?
Does "overseen" involve continuous onsite observation with whatever people and equipment we think necessary? Do we then leave and trust the North Koreans to keep the faclities disabled?
Does "significant progress" mean actual reductions in North Korean nuclear programs or just some movement toward steps that will eventually lead to actual reductions?
When we speak of "Plutonium" programs, are we ignoring Uranium programs? Or does the "Complete list" exclude Uranium programs?
Does the "verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" mean we continue to monitor North Korea freely? Or is it a Saddam game of hide-and-seek? Does that constitute "verifiable?" Does "denuclearization" mean North Korea has no nuclear weapons or programs? Or just mean that they aren't on the Korean peninsula? Do North korean islands off the coast count as part of the Korean peninsula? Do nuclear weapons on submarines count?
I don't want to be afraid to take yes for an answer. I just want to make sure we are actually hearing yes to the question we are asking.
