PANMUNJOM, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea's five negotiating partners will speed up energy aid to the communist state in hopes it will finish disabling its nuclear plants more quickly, a South Korean official said Wednesday.
Representatives from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan met at the border truce village of Panmunjom to discuss the aid promised in return for a shutdown of Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
The six nations have been meeting since 2003. Last year, they reached a landmark deal under which the North would disable its plutonium-producing plants in return for one million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.
The energy-starved North complains the five have been slow to deliver the aid and has previously said it was slowing down disablement in response.
The five met separately Tuesday in Seoul and agreed "that economic assistance to DPRK (North Korea) should be accelerated," said Hwang Joon-Kook, head of the North Korean nuclear bureau at Seoul's foreign ministry.
They also agreed "that acceleration of economic assistance must be matched by the acceleration of disablement and other related measures," Hwang said in opening remarks.
At a similar meeting last week, the North protested over what it called the slow pace of energy assistance. About half the aid will be fuel oil, with the rest equivalent assistance to patch up decrepit power networks.
"While the disabling has been completed for more than 80 percent, overall energy cooperation business is going very slowly -- at 30 percent to 36 percent," its representative, Hyun Hak-Bong, said then.
Hwang on Wednesday denied the North's claims, saying some 490,000 tons of aid had been provided on a contract basis.
"We also disagree with the 80 percent part, considering the fact that more important phases are yet to be completed," he told a briefing after the morning session.
Japan has yet to take part in the aid. It wants the North to come clean on the kidnapping of Japanese citizens during the Cold War era before it does so.
US State Department official Sung Kim visited Pyongyang this week to discuss disablement work.
He returned to Seoul late Wednesday and was to speak with South Korean officials about the outcome of his trip before returning to Washington on Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting diplomatic sources.
The US State Department says that Pyongyang, which conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, has completed eight out of 11 activities to disable its plants -- making them unusable for at least a year.
If the North also makes a promised declaration of all its atomic activities, talks on the last phase of the six-party pact will begin.
Under this, it should permanently dismantle the plants and hand over all nuclear material.
In return, Washington would lift sanctions, establish diplomatic relations and the parties would negotiate a pact formally ending the 1950-53 war.
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