[Nasional-e] U.S.: No oil shipments for North

[Ambon]

U.S.: No oil shipments for North

 By NOBUYOSHI SAKAJIRI, The Asahi Shimbun

It will be a very cold winter in North Korea unless Pyongyang drops its nuke
weapons program.

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration will freeze supplies of heavy oil to
North Korea from December to encourage Pyongyang to comply with the 1994
framework agreement that now appears on the brink of collapse, a senior U.S.
official said Wednesday.

The decision means North Korea likely will face power shortages this winter
because of its continued brinkmanship on nuclear and other issues.

November's shipment of heavy oil is already en route to North Korea from
Singapore and likely will not be stopped.

The oil is being provided through the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization (KEDO), an international consortium set up to build two
light-water nuclear reactors for Pyongyang in return for North Korea
renouncing nuclear weapons and missile development.

Having labeled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil,'' U.S. President
George W. Bush had been expected to take a hard line against Pyongyang,
particularly in light of its recent admission that it continued a
clandestine nuclear weapons program after vowing not to.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Asahi
Shimbun that Washington expected to secure the agreement of Seoul, Tokyo and
others participating in KEDO at the international organization's meeting in
New York on Thursday.

The official confirmed that KEDO's executive board will issue a statement
pressing Pyongyang to abandon its uranium enrichment program.

``What we want is the complete and verifiable dismantlement of the uranium
enrichment program. I think they will be discussing a statement at the KEDO
executive board and it would be along the lines that we've been talking
about-this November boat would go ahead and that would be the last one,''
the official said.

Tokyo is expected to support the U.S. decision, having already requested
Washington to freeze the December shipment of heavy oil.

However, some in the South Korean government say shipments should continue
at least until January, leaving room for further negotiations among
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.

Pyongyang depends on the heavy oil supplies for about half of its national
consumption. With termination of the shipments, North Korea will be under
pressure to change course on nuclear development, sources said.

Washington began supplying heavy fuel oil through KEDO to North Korea based
on the 1994 Agreed Framework between Washington and Pyongyang.

``We will say to Congress, and we think Congress will approve, cutting off
all further funding for heavy fuel oil shipment so that beginning in our
fiscal year-which began Oct. 1-there will be no further U.S. funding for
heavy fuel oil shipments,'' the U.S. official said.

The source said no final decision had been made on whether to abandon the
Agreed Framework. The official was also critical of the Clinton
administration, saying: ``In 1993-94, when they (Pyongyang) threatened to
turn South Korea into a sea of fire, people entered into negotiations with
them and what they have said is we have lied and cheated and broken the
Agreed Framework.

``So there is no chance that this administration will discuss a new bribery
price with the North Koreans.

``We have a saying in the United States: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me
twice, shame on me, meaning you don't deal with somebody who lies to you,
basically.''(IHT/Asahi: November 15,2002)