First the summit, then the atom

North Korea notified its partners at the six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue yesterday that their next round would preferably be held after the Oct. 2-4 meeting in Pyongyang between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. A few hours before this information was made public, the organizer of the six-party talks, China, said that it was difficult for it to convene the round on the scheduled date - September 19.

At the new round of negotiations, ongoing since 2003, with the participation of the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan, it is planned to discuss the second stage of curtailing North Korea's nuclear programs. It provides for the provision of a list of all its nuclear facilities and their decommissioning in exchange for security guarantees, normalization of relations with the United States and Japan and the provision of assistance equivalent to 950 thousand tons of fuel oil. At the first stage, it received 50 thousand tons of fuel for the fact that in July it suspended and, under the control of the IAEA, sealed five facilities at the nuclear center in Yenben, including the reactor. Progress in resolving the Korean nuclear issue prompted US President George W. Bush to talk about the possibility of concluding a peace treaty with the DPRK in the foreseeable future.

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN