North Korea hedges on nuclear deal

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SEOUL -- North Korea said today that it would not dismantle its nuclear-weapons program until the United States first provides an atomic energy reactor, casting doubt on its commitment to a breakthrough agreement reached at international arms talks.

The North's Foreign Ministry made the surprise demand a day after it had agreed at six-nation talks in Beijing to give up its arms efforts.

The North insisted during arms talks that began last week in Beijing that it be given a light-water reactor, a type less easily diverted for weapons use, in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons. The agreement reached at the talks' end yesterday in Beijing -- the first since the negotiations began in August 2003 -- said the six countries in the negotiations will discuss the reactor issue "at an appropriate time."

Both the United States and Japan, members of the six-nation disarmament talks, rejected the North's latest demand.

"This is not the agreement that they signed, and we'll give them some time to reflect," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura called the reactor demand "unacceptable."

The Beijing agreement had called for the North to abandon its arms efforts and accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for energy, economic and security aid.

But the North's statement today indicated that it was again raising the light-water reactor (LWR) demand as a prerequisite for disarming, rejoining the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and signing safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

"The U.S. should not even dream of the issue of [North Korea's] dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing LWRs," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli had emphasized earlier in Washington that the "appropriate time" for discussing the reactor meant only after the North came into compliance with the other conditions.