North Korea News Archives
September 2005–January 2011

Part of RCW's North Korea and Nuclear Weapons information and resource page

21 January 2011: North and South Korea have agreed to hold high-level military talks in February 2011. The talks, the first between the countries' defence ministers since late 2007, could pave the way for the resumption of multinational negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapon programme. (Source: Justin McCurry, "North and South Korea to hold military talks," The Guardian, 21 January 2011.)

23 November 2010: US envoy Stephen Bosworth ruled out resuming six-nation nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea while it works on an alleged new uranium facility, while a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the report of the new nuclear installation made an early resumption of talks more necessary. "Needless to say, we regard this development with great seriousness," Bosworth told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. "We do not contemplate resuming negotiations while active programs are under way or while there is a possibility that North Koreans will test another nuclear device or test a missile." Meanwhile, spokesperson Hong Lei said that China has taken note of the report on the facility. "What is imperative now is to restart six-party talks as soon as possible." ("US, China disagree on more nuke talks with NKorea," AP, 23 November 2010)

11 November 2010: US President Obama said that the United States would be willing to restart stalled disarmament talks with North Korea if that country showed a “seriousness of purpose”. Speaking after a meeting with President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Seoul, Mr. Obama said the North would have to show that it was serious about ending its nuclear weapons program before Six-Party Talks could resume. He said, however, that the United States, South Korea and other nations were ready to offer hefty economic aid if the North Koreans gave up their weapons once and for all. “They have a choice available to them,” Mr. Obama said. “At the point where it appears that they are in fact prepared to move forward on the kind of path that all of us want to see, then we’re going to be there ready to negotiate with them.” (Martin Fackler, “Obama Speech Marks Shift on North Korea,” New York Times, 11 November 2010)

10 November 2010: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that both Russia and the Republic of Korea find it necessary to resume six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme as soon as possible. Speaking at a press conference after his meeting with South Korean president Lee Myung-bak he stressed that the Asia- Pacific region faces strong conflict risks and there is no alternative to the dialogue. ("Moscow, Seoul urge resuming North Korean issue talks ASAP," The Voice of Russia, 10 November 2010)

9 November 2010: A top South Korean presidential aide indicated that the ROK regards North Korea's commitment to denculearization to be more important than a formal apology for its alleged attack on a ROK warship when it comes to prerequisites for the resumption of the six-way nuclear talks. "With regard to the six-way talks, whether North Korea has the will to denuclearize is the more important condition than the Cheonan issue," the Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on condition of anonymity. ("North's denuclearization top priority in resuming nuke talks: Seoul," Yonhap News Agency, 9 November 2010)

9 November 2010: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told South Korean media that Pyongyang’s programme “presents a systemic challenge to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime” and said he was worried about nuclear activities close to Russia’s borders. “Naturally it alarms us that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions create military and political tension in Northeast Asia, in direct proximity to Russia’s eastern frontiers,” Medvedev said in the interview posted on the Kremlin website. “Not to mention that the North Korean nuclear testing ground is located just a little more than 100 km (62 miles) from our territory.” As in the past, Medvedev stressed that the stand-off must be resolved through peaceful diplomacy. (Reuters, "Medvedev alarmed at North Korean nuclear activity," euronews, 9 November 2010)

8 November 2010: In his first report to the UN General Assembly as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano warned that North Korea’s nuclear programme remains a “matter of serious concern”. He complained that the IAEA has had no inspectors in the country since April 2009. “The DPRK has not permitted the agency to implement safeguards in the country since December 2002, and it has not implemented the measures called for in Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874.” He called on all parties concerned “to make concerted efforts for a resumption of the Six-Party Talks at an appropriate time.” (“IAEA Chief Calls on Iran, N. Korea to Dispel Concerns About Nuke Programs,” Voice of America, 8 November 2010)

6 November 2010: There are no signs North Korea has resumed nuclear activity at the site where it previously produced weapons-grade plutonium, according to Charles Pritchard, former top negotiator with North Korea. After a five-day trip to North Korea, the former envoy said that the Yongbyon complex—where the DPRK processed plutonium for past nuclear tests—did not appear to be in operation. “My reaction is that … the 5-megawatt reactor remains shut down … [and] the cooling tower … destroyed.” (“No signs of N.Korea nuclear processing: US envoy,” Channel NewsAsia, 6 November 2010)

12 October 2010: Kim Kye-Gwan, the DPRK’s first vice foreign minister, visited Beijing for talks with China’s nuclear envoy. (“North Korea nuclear envoy visits Beijing,” AFP, 12 October, 2010)

12 October 2010: Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister and chief envoy to the six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear programme, Andrei Borodavkin, noted that the North’s negotiating partners “should work together toward an agreement in opinion.” Borodavkin recalled how his country gave $100 million worth of aid to the North following the six-party agreements in September 2005 that committed Pyongyang to denuclearize, but Pyongyang went ahead with its nuclear test anyway. “This should not happen again,” Borodavkin was quoted as saying, adding Russia has strong interests in peace and security in the entire region of Northeast Asia in the long run. (“Russian envoy calls for common view on denuclearizing N. Korea,” Yonhap News Agency, 12 October, 2010)

4 October 2010: South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young purported that North Korea is restoring facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the source of weapons-grade plutonium in the past. South Korean spokesman Kim Young-Sun added, “There are some activities going on but we have no information on what these are for. The government is watching closely the activities there and exchanging information with other countries.” (“N.Korea restores facilities at nuclear reactor,” AFP, 4 October, 2010)

29 September 2010: North Korea vowed Wednesday to strengthen its nuclear weapons stockpile in order to deter a US and South Korean military buildup in the region. Speaking before the United Nations, North Korea's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon said Pyongyang is, however, ready to join nuclear non-proliferation efforts in its capacity as a nuclear weapon state. Pak didn’t say if his country was ready to return to talks but said a nuclear-weapon-free Korean peninsula would be achieved only if external nuclear threats are eliminated, a reference to the US presence in South Korea. (“NKorea vows to strengthen nuclear arms,” AP, 29 September 2010)

18 September 2010: The White House announced that President Obama will discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme when he meets with political leaders on the side lines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said President Obama will have bilateral meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss North Korea. "It is clear that this area, this question of North Korea and the North Korean nuclear program, is seen by both governments as fundamental to our partnership and our relationship," Bosworth says. (“Obama to discuss N. Korean nukes at U.N. General Assembly: White House”, Yonhap News Agency, 18 September 2010)

8 September 2010: Differences still remain among ROK, DPRK and Japan despite their statement of readiness for negotiations. Wang Fan, Director of Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University said the parties have to make further trust building efforts so they can better contribute to stability in the region. First of all, he believed all parties should be treated equal, including DPRK, and the parties security concerns should be respected. ("Positive signs emerge for resumption of six-party talks, more trust needed", English.news.cn, 8 September 2010)

2 September 2010: South Korea’s top nuclear envoy left for the United States for talks, which indicates on a fresh momentum for a new round of the six-party talks. Wi Sung-lac will meet with the U.S counterpart to discuss resumptions of the six party talks and Washington’s recent sanctions against North Korea. Wi’s Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei visited DPRK last moth to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This was followed by a trip to China by Kim Jong, the North Korean leader. In his meeting with the Chinese president Hu Jintao he expressed hope for an early resumptions of the talks. ("S. Korea's top nuclear envoy visits Washington for talks", English.news.cn. 2 September 2009)

1 September 2010: China lobbied the other states involved in six-party talks to resume the talks. China has condemned North Korea's nuclear tests but it also says that United States should do more to open the negotiations with Pyongyang and offer security assurances, which China believes would make North Korea more willing to engage in nuclear disarmament. Russia welcomed China's call for early resumption of dialogue and has joined China's warning against harsh sanctions towards North Korea. ("What do the six parties want from North Korea talks?", Reuters. 1 September 2010)

1 September 2010: After a meeting in Japan with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, China’s special envoy for Korean peninsula affairs, Mr. Wu Dawei, said China plans to put forward “new proposals” for the countries in the six party talks. Japan agreed to China’s proposals and both sides promised to restart the talks as soon as possible. ("China to put forward “new proposals” to resume six party talks on N. Korea's nuke disarmament", Sify News, 1 September 2010)

31 August 2010: US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said it is up to Pyongyang to take action and demonstrate its commitment to the denuclearization as it has indicated publicly that it remains committed. His statement referred to the reports that Korean leader Kim Jong-il expressed hope for resumption of the six party talks during a meeting last week with the Chinese president Hu Jintao. Crowely declared that Washington has been prepared to meet North Korean officials this year but was impacted by the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan. ("NK must show denuclearization commitment", KBS World. 31 August 2010)

30 August 2010: President Obama broadened the financial sanctions against North Korea, an order that lets the United States block the U.S assets of North Korean entitles conventional arms or luxury products. According to Reuters the main purpose of this sanction is not to freeze the North Korean assets in U.S. banks but to discourage other banks from dealing with North Korea. The Obama administration has been skeptical about resuming the six-party talks saying that the U.S does not want to talk for the sake of talking. In a news conference, the U.S. coordinator of North Korean sanctions, Robert Einhorn made it clear that the U.S will not reward Pyongyang just for reassume the dialogue. He urged North Korea to take clear irreversible steps towards denuclearization. ("U.S to take more action against NK, KBS World. 30 August 2010)

24 August 2010: DPRK's newspaper Minju Choson urged the United States to realize peace on the Korean Peninsula and withdraw its nuclear weapons from South Korea. The paper said United States has never abandoned its ambition to intimidate DPRK with its nuclear presence. It said United States has intended to use nuclear weapons against DPRK since the Korean War and that it holds “nuclear war exercises against the DPRK” regularly. The newspaper underlined that it was legitimate for DPRK to strengthen its nuclear deterrent in order to deal with U.S. nuclear threats. ("DPRK media urges U.S to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula", English.news.com, 24 August 2010)

9 July 2010: North Korea said Japan should not attend the six-party talk after Japanese officials reportedly said they would not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry saying it was no need for Japan to attend "Because it is no more than a state of the US and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington,".("North Korea urges Japan to stay away from six-party talks", The Nation. 9 July 2010)

22 April 2010: The United States said they will not accept DPRK as a nuclear weapon state and urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks. The remark referred to DPRK's demand to be recognized as an official nuclear weapon state. The US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said "If it comes constructively back to the six-party process, then there are opportunities available to North Korea for a different relationship with the United States. ... But they cannot expect a different relationship until they take specific actions first". ("U.S rules out possibility of recognizing DPRK as a nuclear weapon state", Crienglish.com, 22 April 2010)

21 April 2010: North Korea demands recognition as an official nuclear weapon state. The North Korean Foreign Ministry - memo said North Korea wanted to be “on equal footing with other nuclear weapons states”. Regional states have refused North Korea's claim. The North Korean memo said it “will manufacture nukes as much as it deems necessary but will neither participate in nuclear arms race nor produce them more than it feels necessary." The North's foreign minister said, “The extreme nuclear threat of the U.S. persistently compelled the DPRK to have access to nukes.” ("North Korea Demands Nuclear Weapons State Status", Reuters. 21 April 2010)

9 April 2010: During the press conference after the signing of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Prague, President Obama warned that North Korea will face further isolation if it does not cooperate on denuclearization. He also mentioned the Nuclear Posture Review report saying “Earlier this week, the United States formally changed our policy to make it clear that those non-nuclear weapons states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and their non-proliferation obligations will not be threatened by America's nuclear arsenal”. The report does leave nuclear attacks as an option against Iran and North Korea. ("Obama Warns Pyongyang of Further Isolation Over Nukes", The Korean Times. 9 April 2010)

5 March 2010: “China's goal is to restart the Six-Party Talks in the first half of this year. That's our expectation, but it is difficult to say if this will be realized," China's chief negotiator on the DPRK nuclear issue Wu Dawei said on the sideline of the Chinese People's Political Consultive Conference. It was the first time China talked about a time frame considering the resumptions of the six-party talks, which have been frozen since April 2009. ("Beijing expects six-party talks before July", People's Daily, 5 March 2010)

24 February 2010: “The South and the North should have an open-hearted dialogue on the nuclear issues," South Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said. Hyen repeated that Seoul and Pyongyang should discuss nuclear issues and expressed his concern over the North Korean nuclear issues, which he argued makes the future of South Korea unstable. ("S. Korean unification minister calls for nuke discussion with DPRK: media", People's Daily Online, 24 February 2010)

20 February 2010: Russia opposed economic isolation of DPRK. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nestrenko noted that the sanctions against North Korea aimed removing concerns of the international community over the DPRK's nuclear program rather than impose economic isolation. The remark was made during a meeting with a visiting UN expert team and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin. (Russia opposes economic isolation of DPRK, People's Daily Online. 20 February 2010)

5 January 2010: Washington called on Pyongyang to resume the six-party talks. US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly expressed that the US is hopeful that North Korea would return to the six-party talks, referring to the Pyongyang's proposal on improving the relationship with Washington. Through KCNA news agent, North Korea said, "the fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the USA.". ("Washington calls on Pyongyang to return to six-party talks", Global Times. 5 January 2010)

5 January 2010: China's UN Ambassador Zhang Yesui urged the United States and North Korea to seize the moment and take positive steps so that six-party talks on the North's nuclear programme can resume quickly. At a news conference, Zhang said the most important thing now is for the key parties to "meet each other halfway so that ... the six-party talks will start as soon as possible." (AP, "China urges US and NKorea to seize the moment and take steps to resume six-party nuclear talks," The Canadian Press, 5 January 2010.)

5 January 2010: South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan urged North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks and called on China to step up efforts to bring Pyongyang back to the table. He told Yonhap news agency,"I think the North has now secured all face-saving measures (it needed) to return to the six-party talks. Now is the time for the North and China to respond more actively (to calls for resuming the talks). ("S.Korea urges N.Korea to return to nuclear talks," AFP, 5 January 2010.)

6 December 2009: Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the first envoy sent by U.S. President Barack Obama to North Korea, is expected to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday for a three-day stay where he will meet top North Korean officials but not leader Kim Jong-il. The meetings are aimed to convince North Korean officials to return to the Six Party Talks. (Reuters, "U.S. Envoy in South Korea en Route to Nuclear Talks With North," New York Times, 6 December 2009.)

19 November 2009: The US president wrapped up his Asia tour in Seoul by calling on North Korea to take "serious steps" to end its nuclear programme. President Obama also announced that he was sending a special envoy to Pyongyang next month for direct talks. "Our message is clear," said the US president. "If North Korea is prepared to talk concrete and irreversible steps to fulfill its obligations and eliminate its nuclear weapons programme, the United States will support economic assistance and help promote its full integration into the international community.” That opportunity and respect will not come with threats. North Korea must live up to its obligations." ("Obama urges North Korea to disarm," AlJazeera.net, 19 November 2009.)

17 November 2009: After a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, US President Barack Obama said China and the United States want talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme to resume "as soon as possible". Obama said North Korea faced a choice: "It can continue down the path of confrontation and provocation that has led to less security, less prosperity, and more isolation from the global community, or it can choose to become a full member of the international community," he said. He added the latter option would allow the North to "give a better life to its people by living up to international obligations and forgoing nuclear weapons". Hu said China and the United States were "committed to dialogue and consultation in resolving the Korean peninsula nuclear issue. "The two sides will work with other parties concerned to continue the de-nuclearisation process of the Korean Peninsula and six-party talks process in a bid to uphold peace and stability in Northeast Asia," he said.

The United States has said it is willing to sit down with North Korea but only if such a meeting is considered part of the six-nation talks that led to the 2005 and 2007 agreements on the North giving up its nuclear weapons. The joint Sino-US statement issued after Obama and Hu met Tuesday said "the Chinese side welcomed the start of high-level contacts between the United States and the DPRK". ("China, US call for resumption of N.Korea talks," AFP, 17 November 2009.)

13 November 2009: In an interview given to the Yonhap News Agency, US President Barack Obama said North Korea can expect to be the target of economic penalties until it returns to multilateral negotiations and undergoes permanent nuclear disarmament. "North Korea has the opportunity to move towards acceptance by the international community if it will comply with its international obligations and live up to its own commitments," Obama said. "By taking irreversible steps towards the complete elimination of its nuclear program, North Korea will be following the peaceful path towards security and respect." ("Obama Calls on North Korea to Relinquish Nukes," Global Security Newswire, 13 November 2009.)

11 November 2009: The North Korean government added additional pressure for bilateral negotiations, saying it is “ready to go our own way.” The United States has not made any announcement for the scheduling of bilateral negotiations and maintains negotiations need to operate within the framework of the Six Party Talks. Jack Lang, France's Special Envoy to North Korea has arrived in Pyongyang on a five day visit. The trip was qualified by Lang as a “fact-finding mission to gather information, and impressions,” and a meeting with Kim Jong-II was neither off the table nor confirmed. Lang indicated that discussions regarding North Korea's nuclear program may be expected as well as further opening dialogue between France and North Korea. (Choe Sang-Hun, "North Korea Presses U.S. to Agree to Bilateral Talks," New York Times, 11 November 2009.)

10 November 2009: Jack Lang, the French president's special envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), held talks with DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the official news agency KCNA reported. Jack Lang, appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Oct. 1, will study such issues as the relations between France and the Korean Peninsula and the nuclear issue. ("DPRK foreign minister meets French special envoy," Xinhua, 10 November 2009.)

3 November 2009: North Korea's official news agency announced that the country has completed reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, and has made substantial progress in turning plutonium into fuel for nuclear bombs.(Kurt Achin, "N. Korea Announces More Production of Nuclear Weapons Material," Voice of America, 3 November 2009.)

2 November 2009: A spokesman from the DPRK Foreign Ministry was quoted by the official North Korean news agency as saying that the United States and North Korea must first sit down and hold direct party talks to form a rational solution before resuming multilateral negotiations on its weapons programme. ("North Korea calls for direct talks with U.S.," Reuters, 2 November 2009.)

13-15 October 2009: During the second week of the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, the European Union and Japanese delegations again condemned the DPRK’s nuclear and missile tests in the thematic debate on nuclear weapons, as undermining to the stability of the Korean peninsula and representing “a threat to international peace and security.” Australia, Canada, the European Union, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and the United States urged the DPRK to renounce its nuclear programme and/or return to Six Party Talks. Several delegations, including those of the European Union, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, also urged the DPRK to comply with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. The EU additionally called on the DPRK to return to the NPT and IAEA safeguards and “not to pursue any sensitive exports”. Further, it described the DPRK’s letter to the UN Security Council on 4 September 2009, “which strives to challenge” resolution 1874, as containing “further provocations to the international community.”

Australia’s Ambassador Millar described the DPRK’s nuclear test as “strikingly at odds with the renewed momentum on nuclear disarmament. The US delegation said resolving both the DPRK and Iranian challenges is “ a critical element of the push to realize a world without nuclear weapons.” The French delegation said it will judge both the DPRK and Iran “by acts rather than by intentions,” noting that it is “paying careful attention” to specific results that it expects to see by the end of the year.

In both its general debate and thematic debate statements, the DPRK delegation rejected the statements of those who condemned their activities as “serious provocations,” arguing that its nuclear tests have been the result of US aggression and UN Security Council resolutions.

5-7 October 2009: During the first week of the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, a few delegations remarked on the DPRK nuclear situation, generally urging a resumption of the Six Party Talks. The New Agenda Coalition further called on the DPRK to rejoin NPT and reestablish cooperation with IAEA. Jamaica’s Ambassador Wolfe urged all states involved in the Six Party Talks to return to the negotiating table “and work towards a long-term solution that addresses the concerns of all parties.” Turkey’s Ambassador Apakan noted that, as current Chair of the DPRK Sanctions Committee in the UN Security Council, his delegation is committed to the full implementation of UNSC resolutions 1718 and 1874, to resolving the issue through diplomatic negotiations, and to encouraging the DPRK to return to the Six Party Talks. Australia’s Ambassador Quinlan urged the DPRK to “implement its commitments to abandon its nuclear weapons program.”

A few delegations maintained a stronger tone, with the European Union condemning the nuclear test explosions and Japan’s Ambassador Suda describing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile tests as a threat to international peace and security. He urged the DPRK to comply with relevant Security Council resolutions and for member states to fully implement them. The Republic of Korea’s Ambassador Kim reiterated his delegation’s position that the “DPRK’s nuclear development cannot be tolerated,” prompting a right of reply from the DPRK delegation, which argued that the Six Party Talks were “driven to collapse,” that its missile launches were an exercise of sovereignty, and that it only possesses nuclear weapons as a deterrent against US aggression.

7 October 2009: China's top envoy on North Korean issues declared positive movement toward resuming the Six-Party Talks. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei suggested that Washington and Pyongyang engage in bilateral negotiations in order to lift the current deadlock. These bilateral negotiations could be considered under the framework of the Six-Party Talks as suggested by Wu.

The Obama administration has indicated that any bilateral negotiations should be conducted via the Six-Party Talks and focus exclusively on ending the North Korean nuclear program. Ian Kelly, the State Department spokes person, said that Washington is aware of the North Korean initiative for talks with the US but has not received any detail from Pyongyang regarding such a meeting.

France has constructed a special envoy to North Korea in order to determine ways France may help to end the nuclear standoff. Lead by Jack Lang, Lang is currently touring the nations of the Six-Party Talks and set to arrive in North Korea on November 10th. Lang has been quoted saying that France and/or the EU would be willing to compensate North Korea for nuclear denuclearization.

30 September 2009: Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister, Pak Kil-yon said, “The US administration must discard the old concept of confrontation and show a change in practice, as it recently stated on several occasions.” Pak also said that the US has threatened North Korea with nuclear weapons and North Korea's possession of a nuclear weapon are for deterrence purposes as this is the only way to ensure power balance in the region.

30 September 2009: North Korea rejected renewed efforts for a deal to end its nuclear program for economic aid. North Korea insisted that its nuclear program would end when the US stops threatening its existence.

4 September 2009: North Korea announced that it has nearly completed its process for enriching uranium, adding a new course for creating nuclear weapons. Thus far, the North Korean program has focused on plutonium based weapons raising concerns that uranium based weapons will be added to the North Korean stockpiles. US State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said, "We are very concerned by these claims that they are moving closer to the weaponization of nuclear materials, but I can't really comment on the veracity, how true these claims are.”

3 September 2009: The Permament Representative of the DPRK to the United Nations sent a letter to the President of the Security Council to inform the Council that it does not feel "any need to respond to the request made by the Security Council Committtee" because it made a statement on 13 June rejecting UN Security Council Resolution 1874.

August: China called for diplomatic solutions to the DPRK's nuclear program amid additional moves by the United States to freeze financial funding of the country's missile program. The US Treasury Department froze any assets found in the US by the Korean, Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC), believing that KKBC provides financial services to Tachon Commercial Bank and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation; both companies are suspected of active participation in the proliferation of nuclear weapons according to US officials.

In the first use of UN Security Council Resolution 1874 in June 2009, India detained a ship bound for the Middle East under suspicion of containing radioactive materials following an unauthorized anchoring in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian officials reported that the ship was carrying sugar bound for the Middle East; however, because the ship had no apparent reason for entry into the waters off India and its proximity to Myanmar, a North Korean ally, the Indian military believed they had justification to board and investigate the ship. No illegal cargo was found. It was later reported to the UN Security Council that the United Arab Emirates seized a North Korean Ship in early August smuggling illicit arms to Iran. This comes as an apparent attempt to enforce UNSCR 1874.

30 July 2009: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was encouraged by the DPRK Foreign Ministry's remarks that it is open to a "specific and reserved" dialogue on its nuclear programme, and urged the United States to pursue a direct dialogue with the DPRK. However, while acknowledging Ban's remarks, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, "Our approach on North Korea is we feel very strongly that we have to engage North Korea multilaterally, through the six-party mechanism." Kelly said the United States was open to direct contact with North Korea, perhaps in an effort to free two US journalists sentenced to hard labor for entering the secluded country. But he added: "We feel very strongly that any (bilateral) talks that we have have to be in the context of the six-party talks." On the same day, a US envoy "handling" sanctions against the DPRK, Philip Goldberg, briefed a United Nations panel on US implementation of the sacntions and warned of potential further sanctions. "One of the things that we discussed... is the idea that designations are still on the table," he told reporters in New York. "They still can be made," he added.

27 July 2009: North Korea’s Foreign Ministry stated that it would be open to discussions with the United States about its nuclear weapons program, but not to discussions within the format of the six-party talks. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson went on to say that the six-party talks ceased to be a possibility when those nations agreed to the most recent Security Council resolution. In response, a United States State Department official said that the North Korean suggestion of bilateral talks between the US and the DPRK "fails to meet" international demands and would not suffice.

20 July 2009: The United States and others in the Six Party Talks are reportedly preparing a "comprehensive package" of incentives to encourage North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons. Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, did not elaborate on the package which is still being finalised, but said it would require Pyongyang to take "irreversible" steps towards denuclearisation in return.

8 July 2009: Japanese Parliament passed a bill on inspecting ships suspected of carrying illicit cargo to and from the DPRK. The bill authorized the Japanese Coast Guard as the principle agent to conduct inspections of suspected ships in international and Japanese waters while the Self-Defense Forces are to be on stand-by in the event that the cargo ship’s crewmembers are heavily armed. The bill does not authorize the use of force and Japan must get permission from the DPRK to inspect the ship or to order it to the nearest Japanese port.

7 July 2009: The UNSC condemned the recent missile tests by the DPRK, urging the DPRK to cease testing and comply with current UNSC sanctions and other international obligations. The DPRK test-fired 7 ballistic missiles on Saturday, 4 July, according to the ROK Ministry of Defense. The DPRK tested 3 mid-range Rodong missiles, as well as four short-range Scud missiles.

23 June 2009: Following a military meeting with the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang stated that a return to negotiation through the six-party talks is the best way to curb the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions. When asked by the press about the possibility of states inspecting DPRK cargo ships, Qin said the inspection should be carried out according to relevant UN resolutions and international and domestic laws. Qin went on to say that China is does not have any relevant information about the Kang Nam’s cargo or destination but that, “In the current situation, China calls on the involved parties to avoid actions that may further intensify the tension.”

A DPRK cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is being tracked by a United States destroyer as it heads Southward with a suspected shipment of weapons. South Korea's YTN said the ship is traveling about 230 miles southeast of Shanghai. The ship’s exact destination has yet to be confirmed, however the United States has indicated that they believe it may be headed to Burma. If the King Nam needs refueling it would most likely stop in Singapore. The Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry said, “Singapore takes seriously the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), their means of delivery and related materials. If the allegation is true, Singapore will act appropriately.”

20 June 2009: According the Associated Press, the DPRK has announced that any attempts by South Korea to uphold UNSC Resolution 1874 “would mean a war.” The statement went on to say that the DPRK would “mercilessly retaliate” if South Korea “infringed upon the sovereignty of the DPRK.”

18 June 2009: During a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian and Chinese leaders discussed mutual concerns over North Korea’s recent nuclear test, expressing hope that the DPRK would return to the six-party talks. In a joint statement on the issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, “Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations.”

16 June 2009: US President Obama urged the DPRK to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, saying the international community is resolved to prevent nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and that "another path" exists by which North Korea "can achieve prosperity and peace."

15 June 2009: In an effort to carry out inspections of the DPRK’s cargo vessels, the United States Navy will track shipments to their destination if they are not granted permission to inspect them. This is part of what the United States called the “vigorous enforcement” of UNSC Resolution 1874. The Obama administration has said they will report any vessel that refuses inspections to the UN Security Council. The more aggressive approach stops just short of blocking the ships, which the DPRK’s government said it would consider as an act of war, be met “with resolute and deadly blows.” US Vice President Biden said that the Obama administration plans to “[keep] the pressure on.”

13 June 2009: The DPRK responded to Friday’s UNSC resolution 1874 by vowing to continue the “weaponization” of newly extracted plutonium. According to the KCNA, the DPRK’s official news source, one-third of all spent nuclear fuel rods have been reprocessed to date and the state will continue uranium enrichment. Further, the DPRK claims that any attempts by the United States to blockade the DPRK’s cargo ships will be taken “as an act of war and met with a decisive military response.”

12 June 2009: The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Friday on an enhanced package of sanctions against North Korea in response to its May 25th nuclear test and April 5th missile launch in UNSC Resolution 1874. UNSC Resolution 1874 authorizes United Nations members to inspect cargo vessels and airplanes suspected of carrying weapons related material in or out of the DPRK. The resolution does not make these inspections mandatory and does not authorize the use of force when carrying them out. However, it does requires states to stop all “bunkering” services for North Korean vessels, such as refueling. Resolution 1874 condemns the recent nuclear test, demands the DPRK to stop the construction of ballistic missiles, and urges the country to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

10 June 2009: China and Russia have reportedly agreed to suppor an UN Security Council draft resolution that will limit loans and money transfers to the DPRK, as well as allow for the interdiction of cargo ships suspected of carrying nuclear-related material to or from DRPK. The draft resolution also “condemns in the strongest terms” the May 25 test, and demands that the DPRK terminate its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cease all missile tests. The resolution asks UN member states to report within 45 days on their progress towards the implementation of sanctions and for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to name a group of experts to monitor their enforcement. "This sanctions regime if passed by the Security Council will bite, and bite in a meaningful way," said US Ambassador Susan Rice. The Council will decide on the matter tomorrow (11 June).

25 May 2009: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conducted what it claims to be a second nuclear test. According to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, the International Monitoring System’s (IMS) seismic stations registered a seismic event at 41.2896 degrees North and 129.0480 degrees East at 00:54:43 GMT (09:54 local time). The signal’s area of origin is largely identical with the 2006 DPRK nuclear test. The event’s magnitude is slightly higher than in 2006, measuring 4.52 on the Richter scale, while in 2006 it was 4.1. Those doing the calculations at ArmsControlWonk.com suggest the yield of the nuclear explosive device was likely around 4 KT.

14 April 2009: The International Atomic Energy Agency has been asked to leave immediately by the North Korean government, according to the IAEA Spokesperson, Marc Vidricaire. The DPRK has apparently informed the IAEA that it is immediately resuming activities and the reprocessing of spent fuel in its Yongbyon nuclear plant and will no longer be cooperating with the IAEA inspections. The inspectors have been asked to leave the DPRK as quickly as possible.

14 April 2009: In an unanimous decision made 13 April, the United Nations Security Council, in a presidential statement, demanded North Korea halt its development of ballistic missiles and refrain from conducting any further launches. In response, the North Korean government said that it would reconstruct its Yongbyon light-water nuclear reactor – which is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium – and boycott the six-party talks, saying they had “no choice” but to do so, arguing that the UN Security Council has never before “taken issue” with satellite launches. Speaking on the government-controlled news channel, the Foreign Ministry announced that the DPRK "resolutely rejects the unjust action taken by the [United Nations] wantonly infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and seriously hurting the dignity of the Korean people." South Korean officials were surprised by the strong response of the North Korean government, assuring that their government would respond to the DPRK threats in a “calm manner,” while the United States said the North Korean government should return to the six-party talks and not "further isolate itself."

5 April 2009: North Korea launched a Taepodong 2 missile over Japan. The United States and South Korea report that its payload landed in the Pacific Ocean and did not enter orbit, though North Korea apparently reports its satellite was successfully launched. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has been called for 5 April afternoon. US President Obama and European Union leaders meeting in Prague condemned the move and said the launch demanded an international response.

1 April 2009: North Korean officials accused the United States military of sending spy planes into North Korean airspace to interfere with the DRPK’s planned missile launch. Speaking on the state-run Korean Central radio station, the North Korean government threatened to shoot down any United States aircraft, stating, “If the brigandish U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down.” Meanwhile, experts in South Korea are suggesting that the shape of the supposed missile would indicate that the missile launch is to put a satellite into space as North Korea has maintained, though South Korean officials say that regardless of its intention, such a launch would still be in violation of the United Nations resolution. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso have reaffirmed their intentions of going before the United Nations Security Council if North Korea goes ahead with their proposed launch. Lee went on to assure that South Korea supports Japan’s right to “take measures to protect its citizens.” North Korea has declared that any interference on the part of Japan would be an act of war.

30 March 2009: United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted that the United States would only consider shooting down the North Korean missile if it or its parts were heading towards US territory. Speaking to the press, Mr. Gates said, “If we had an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii, that looked like it was headed for Hawaii or something like that, we might consider it.” American military officials have refused to reveal the intended missions of the two Aegis-equipped destroyers docked over the weekend in the South Korean port of Busan. However, a South Korean military official has told reporters that the vessels will be moved to the sea between Japan and North Korea to monitor the launch.

27 March 2009: Japan announced it intends on positioning two AEGIS-equipped military vessels in the waters between Japan and North Korea in anticipation of North Korea’s intended missile launch, according to Japanese Defense Minister, Yasukazu Hamada. The Japanese military has been authorized to shoot down any resulting debris threatening Japanese territory. Additionally, Patriot land-to-air missiles will also be deployed in Tokyo. Mr. Hamada has said the Japanese “are extremely uncomfortable with the object flying over Japanese territory.” Russia has voiced its concern, saying, “We understand that the current situation in the region of Northeast Asia is tense, and this is why it would be better if our partners in North Korea abstained from this, from this launch.”

26 March 2009: US deployed at least five AEGIS-guided missile destroyers in preparation for the DPRK’s intended rocket launch. The US believes the launch is not to put a peaceful satellite into space as the DPRK has claimed, but is a cover for a long-range missile test. The DPRK launch is said to happen sometime between April 4th and April 8th.

Top officials from the US, Japan, South Korea are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC on Friday, 27 March to discuss tensions over DPRK missile launch. This meeting will be the first substantive talks between these nations since Obama took office in January. The United States has said that any DPRK missile launch would violate UN Security Council resolution 1718 and would “not go unnoticed.” North Korea says if its planned missile launch is interfered with, it will restart a nuclear power plant that is capable of making weapons-grade plutonium. DPRK has also repeated threats to quit the six-party talks if the missile is shot down or the DPRK is “punished” in any way for the launch. South Korea plans on dispatching a destroyer capable of shooting down the DPRK missile. The missile has been positioned on the launch pad but is said to need several days to fuel.

29 January 2009: Top Japanese and South Korean nuclear envoys to the six-party talks, Akitaka Saiki of Japan and Kim Sook of South Korea, "had a wide-ranging exchange of opinions on the six-way talks". South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young gave no details, but Kim was expected to brief Saiki on a recent trip by South Korean experts to the North's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

23 January 2009: Chinese state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he wants a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, declaring his willingness to work with China to push forward the six-party process. Kim was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying, "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and hopes to live in peace with all other sides. We don't want to see tension emerge in the situation on the peninsula, and we are willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China and push forward the six-party process without interruption."

17 January 2009: North Korea's foreign ministry said it would retain its nuclear weapons as long as it feels under nuclear threat from Washington: "Even if the DPRK-US diplomatic relations become normalised, our status as a nuclear-armed state will never change as long as the US nuclear threat to us remains, even to the slightest degree." A ministry spokesman, quoted by official media, said it was a "miscalculation" for the US to consider normalised ties a reward for North Korea abandoning nuclear weapons: "What we earnestly desire is not the normalisation of DPRK-US ties but the strengthening of nuclear deterrence in every possible way," the spokesman added. "We have made nuclear weapons not in order... to seek the normalisation of ties with the US or economic assistance but to protect us from US nuclear threats. We can live without the normalisation of ties with the US but we cannot survive without the nuclear deterrence."

16 January 2009: A South Korean team visited North Korea's main nuclear site during a trip to discuss buying unused fuel rods as part of a nuclear deal. The six-member delegation visited a storage place for the unused fuel rods and other facilities in Yongbyon. The team, led by its deputy chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-Kook, was to investigate the "technical and economic" aspects of buying the rods. North Korea has declared 14,000 unused rods from its plutonium-producing reactor. South Korea has expressed interest in buying the unused fuel rods for its nuclear power plants.

14 January 2009: South Korea officials said they will visit North Korea this week to discuss buying unused fuel rods from its plutonium-producing reactor as part of the nuclear disarmament process. Analysts said the visit was a positive sign the North remains interested in completing the disablement of its declared nuclear plants, despite the failure of talks in Beijing last month.

15 December 2008: South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young said the 5 states negotiating nuclear disarmament with North Korea will continue providing energy aid in coming weeks despite the failure of the latest round of multilateral talks. Russia is pushing to provide 50,000 tons of fuel oil and China plans to deliver 99,000 tons by the end of January to complete their shares of the assistance.

12 December 2008: The United States said that there would be no more fuel aid shipments to energy-strapped North Korea until Pyongyang agrees to a written plan to verify its nuclear disarmament.

10 December 2008: Delegates to the Six Party Talks announced they did not make progress on a verification protocol during their meetings. The Chinese delegation had circulated a draft protocol, the wording of which could not be agreed upon by the involved parties. US envoy Christopher Hill said, "We had some real difficulty in consensus on moving forwards... in terms of coming up with the verification agreement, we don't seem to be narrowing differences." Japan's chief envoy Akitaka Saiki said the talks would continue on 11 December.

8 December 2008: The Six Party Talks convened in Beijing to discuss fuel oil aid to North Korea and a schedule for disabling its nuclear facilities. US envoy Christopher Hill said there was no contention over these issues, but that the primary focus of this round of talks would be verification of disablement. The Chinese delegation has been tasked with circulating a draft verification protocol tomorrow. The six parties reached agreement to ship all promised economic aid to North Korea (1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid) by 1 March, according to South Korea's envoy Kim Sook.

3 December 2008: Arriving in Singapore to meet with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan, US envoy Christopher Hill said verifying North Korea's nuclear disarmament is vital: "What we need to do is to make sure that the verification protocol is one that clarifies issues so that there won't be any misunderstandings. We need some specificity on this protocol, we had a lot of discussions about it and I think we do have an understanding on how to go forward."

26 November 2008: The Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran now has more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in operation. The figure of "operational" centrifuges is countered by the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said last week that Iran has 3,820 centrifuges in operation and another 2,132 being installed or tested.

24 November 2008: US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US expects North Korea to formally agree to let inspectors take samples from weapons-grade nuclear sites during the next round of Six Party Talks in December. He also said the US hopes and expects the verification protocol would be formalized.

23 November 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the next meeting of the Six Party Talks would take place starting 8 December in China.

17 October 2008: US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the DPRK has “reversed all their reversals,” explaining, “All the seals are back on, the surveillance equipment is back, reinstalled, and the equipment that had been removed is back where it had been.” He added that the North Koreans have also removed more nuclear fuel rods from the reactor, noting, “On the reactor, they have actually gone beyond where they were prior to their reversing the disablement steps.” According to the State Department, 60 percent of the fuel rods had been taken out of the reactor.

14 October 2008: IAEA inspectors began reapplying the seals on the Yongbyon facilities.

13 October 2008: The IAEA announced that North Korea granted its inspectors access to to the 5 Megawatt Experimental Nuclear Power Plant, the Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Plant and the reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. In addition, the IAEA noted, "agency inspectors were also informed today that, as of tomorrow, 14 October, core discharge activities at the reactor would be resumed, monitored by agency inspectors." North Korea's moves also allow inspectors to resume "containment and surveillance measures at the reprocessing facility."

The IAEA said it had not yet been briefed on details of the verification measures agreed by the United States and North Korea. "We assume that we will be fully briefed once all the six parties (in the negotiations) have met to consider it," the agency said. It added that any new role for the IAEA would have to be approved by the agency's board.

12 October 2008: North Korea welcomed its removal from Washington's terrorism blacklist and said that it would resume disabling its nuclear weapons facilities, allowing American and IAEA monitors back into its main nuclear complex. South Korea and Japan also welcomed the agreement. The New York Times reported rifts within the US administration over the agreement.

11 October 2008: The Bush administration announced it has removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in a bid to salvage the nuclear disablement agreement. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said that the United States made the decision after North Korea agreed to resume disabling a plutonium plant and to allow some inspections to verify that it had halted its nuclear program as promised months earlier. North Korea also agreed to a verification plan that would allow US inspectors access to its main declared nuclear compound, at Yongbyon. US inspectors will also be granted access to other "suspicious" sites "based on mutual consent" with North Korea.

9 October 2008: The IAEA announced in a statement that the DPRK informed IAEA inspectors that, effective immediately, access to facilities at Yongbyon would no longer be permitted." The statement also added, "The DPRK also stated that it has stopped its disablement work." IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said, "[Inspectors] are no longer allowed to carry out the monitoring and verification of any nuclear activity whatsoever ... although they can remain in their quarters at Yongbyon."

3 October 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill finished talks with North Korea, remarking, “I don’t want to say I am satisfied. I just tell you that they were lengthy, they were really detailed and very substantive.” Hill has declined to say if the talks were a success until he speaks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and representatives from other countries involved in the six-nation talks. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Hill suggested changes in the timing of the process rather than large changes to the verification regime as a whole.

2 October 2008: After meeting with his South Korean counterpart, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said, “I would say we are in a difficult and very tough phase of negotiations.” He expressed hope that China will help in negotiations and said he will offer to let North Korea provide evidence of its disarmament solely to China instead of to a wider group of nations. Hill indicated the United States is eager to review documents North Korea has already submitted to China in June detailing their nuclear program.

1 October 2008: Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, arrived in North Korea in a trip described by one US official as a “last ditch effort to get on track.” A South Korean government source said, “The US has come up with a revised draft verification protocol. Hill will try to reach a compromise on it.”

29 September 2008: The Secretary of State’s deputy spokesman Robert Wood said that Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will go to North Korea “to get a sense on the ground as to what’s going on. He is going to meet with his counterparts in other capitals in the region to talk about how we can get the North back on the path to what it’s committed to doing.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remarked, “We need to move forward on the verification protocol. I think everybody is in agreement… among the five parties, and so we will look to see what they have to say.”

24 September 2008: The IAEA announced that North Korea has barred inspectors from its nuclear reprocessing plant that produces weapons-grade plutonium and intends to restart activity there in a week. The IAEA also announced it had completed the removal of all seals and surveillance cameras from the plant, one of several sites at its vast Yongbyon nuclear complex, which processes spent nuclear fuel rods for plutonium. An IAEA spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, told reporters at the Agency’s headquarters, “There are no more seals and surveillance equipment in place at the reprocessing facility.” She added that the North Koreans “also informed I.A.E.A. inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week’s time. They further stated that from here on, I.A.E.A. inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant.” Although they are now barred from the reprocessing plant, inspectors remain elsewhere at the Yongbyon site, but North Korea has not told the nuclear agency whether the small permanent group of inspectors will be allowed to stay or whether they will continue to have access to other buildings there, a European official linked to the agency said.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations as outlined in the six party agreements. The North Korean actions are very disappointing and run counter to the expectations of the members of the six party talks and the international community.”

22 September 2008: During his introductory statement to the IAEA Board of Governors, Director General ElBaradei announced that North Korea has asked the Agency to remove seals and cameras from its main nuclear complex, Yongbyon, to enable them to carry out tests that “will not involve nuclear material.” Director General ElBaradei said, “Agency inspectors have observed that some equipment previously removed by North Korea during the disablement process has been brought back. This has not changed the shutdown status of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. I still hope that conditions can be created for North Korea to return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty at the earliest possible date and for the resumption of comprehensive safeguards.” His full statement on North Korea is as follows:

As explained in the report before you, the Agency has so far continued to verify the shutdown of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and to implement the ad hoc monitoring and verification arrangement, with the cooperation of the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Agency has not been asked to take part in the disablement activities, but has been able to observe and document them.

In that context, Agency inspectors have observed, after our report was distributed to you, that some equipment previously removed by the DPRK during the disablement process has been brought back. This has not changed the shutdown status of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. This morning, the DPRK authorities asked the Agency´s inspectors to remove seals and surveillance equipment to enable them to carry out tests at the reprocessing plant, which they say will not involve nuclear material.

I still hope that conditions can be created for the DPRK to return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty at the earliest possible date and for the resumption by the Agency of comprehensive safeguard.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry had said that work is under way to restore Yongbyon’s facilities “to their original state.” Al Jazeera reported that a "senior diplomat close to the IAEA" said the seals have been taken off.

8 September 2008: US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters he could not confirm news reports that North Korea has broken seals placed by the International Atomic Energy on equipment at its Yongbyon nuclear plant, but he reiterated that the North Koreans were putting equipment that had been in storage back to former positions: "They're actually taking some of the steps that would allow them to restart; and actually restarting, actually being able to use Yongbyon as it was previously configured and for its previous purposes. I don't think at this point that you can say they are at that last step. But they are, it would appear, starting to take some of those initial actions that would allow them to get to the third phase."

6 September 2008: US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, Chinese envoy Wu Dawei, and the Russian ambassador to China met in Beijing to discuss North Korea's decision to reactivate the Yongbyon reactor. Hill said that the United States will take North Korea off its terror list "immediately" if it can agree a way to verify its nuclear facilities. "I want to stress that we're not looking to verify their declaration (of nuclear activities) now, we're looking to come up with rules of how we will verify it in the future," Hill told reporters.

3 September 2008: Officials at the US state department said North Korea appeared to be moving equipment out of storage at its Yongbyon plant, but there was no effort to reconstruct it. Reports from officials in Japan and South Korea indicated the North was actively reassembling the plant.But state department spokesman Sean McCormack said it appeared that the North was moving previously stored equipment rather than rebuilding. But state department spokesman Sean McCormack said it appeared that the North was moving previously stored equipment rather than rebuilding. He told reporters: "To my knowledge, based on what we know from the folks on the ground, you don't have an effort to reconstruct, reintegrate this equipment back into the Yongbyon facility." Former UN weapons inspector David Albright says the reactor at Yongbyon is mostly intact. But he said the regime would need to manufacture hundreds - possibly thousands - of fuel rods and rebuild a cooling tower that was blown up in June to get it fully operational.

1 September 2008: South Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Sook urged North Korea to restart work to disable its nuclear plants.

28 August 2008: A senior South Korean official reported that the United States and North Korea have not been able to agree to procedures to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament process. The official said the "bone of contention" is the US demand to conduct sampling of nuclear material in North Korea. While the United States insists that outside inspectors be allowed freely to collect samples from nuclear facilities or equipment, North Korea says it will allow outside inspectors merely to tour facilities, interview engineers and scientists, and look at relevant documents - which Washington says is not good enough. The US says the sampling work is crucial to verifying the amount of plutonium which the North produced in the past.

27 August 2008: A Russian foreign ministry statement said, "We are disappointed and concerned over the DPRK's decision to suspend the disablement of nuclear facilities and consider reactivating its Yongbyon reactor. This means an unnecessary pause in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the possibility of a step backward." The statement urged North Korea to "display true commitment to the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, continue the disablement of the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and complete this process by the end of October this year."

26 August 2008: A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson said the government has stopped disabling its nuclear plants as of 14 August 2008 and will consider restoring the Yongbyon complex, accusing the United States of violating the six-party disarmament deal by failing to remove North Korea from its terrorism blacklist: "As the US refused to carry out the... agreement, a grave obstacle to the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula has been created. Secondly, we will consider restoring the Yongbyon facilities to their original state in accordance with strong demands from our relevant agencies." The North Korean statement rejected US demands for strict procedures to verify the North's declaration of its nuclear activities: "It would be a big mistake if the US believes that it can carry out a search of our home as it did in Iraq as it pleased." The statement also points out, "In no agreement among the six parties or between the DPRK and the United States does an article stipulate the issue of verifying our nuclear declaration as a conditionality for the removal from the list."

In turn, US White House spokesman Tony Fratto accused North Korea of violating the six-party agreement, saying, "The United States will not take North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list until we have a protocol in place to verify the dismantling and accounting for Korea's nuclear program." The US State Department said Pyongyang's decision to stop disabling its key Yongbyon nuclear complex was of "great concern" and "a step backward" in diplomatic efforts aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "It certainly is in violation of its commitments to the six-party framework, certainly in violation of the principle of action-for-action." However, Wood also said that the United States "can't get overly excited by a down in the situation right now because this process does go up and down."

25 August 2008: South Korea and China agreed to expand cooperation in political, economic and other fields, including North Korea's nuclear disarmament. Chinese President Hu Jintao said, "We agreed to make joint efforts to ensure the six-party talks process enters a new phase." Hu also called for the "full implementation" of the second phase of the denuclearization process that calls for the disablement and declaration of the North's nuclear facilities.

24 August 2008: The North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun said, "The DPRK will bolster the war deterrent for self-defence... and resolutely foil any provocation with strong countermeasures," in response to last week's annual US-South Korean joint military exercise.

20 August 2008: North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed spokesman from its Foreign Ministry as saying calls from global powers such as the United States for Pyongyang to verify claims it made in disarmament talks about producing arms-grade plutonium are "unjust." KCNA also said that South Korean-US military exercises, which started on 18 August, had spoiled the atmosphere for the disarmament discussions: "This situation compels the DPRK to heighten vigilance against such unjust demands as the 'verification in line with the international standard' recently claimed by the U.S. as regards the nuclear issue."

18 August 2008: The official Korean Central News Agency said the United States is using human rights to block progress in a six-nation agreement on eliminating nuclear weapons in North Korea. During US President Bush's recent trip to Asia, he "blustered that he would handle the 'human rights issue' as 'an element for negotiations with North Korea,'" which the Korean Central News Agency "'categorically dismiss[ed] ... as a premeditated act of the U.S. to deliberately throw a hurdle in the process of the six-party talks' and avoid implementing key points of a disarmament deal."

6 August 2008: US President George W Bush said North Korea will not be taken off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism until Pyongyang agrees on a verification plan for its nuclear weapons programme.

23 July 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia at an Asian security forum in Singapore. She reportedly prodded the Pyongyang government to move quickly to dismantle its nuclear arms program. After the talks, Rice said, "We didn’t get into specific timetables, but the spirit was good because people believe we have made progress. There is also a sense of urgency about moving forward and a sense that we can’t afford do have another hiatus." She characterized the meeting as “very good,” adding that “it wasn’t a standoff with people just stating their positions.”

The spokesman for the North Korean delegation, Ri Tong Il, told reporters in Singapore that Mr. Pak had told his fellow foreign ministers that North Korea is willing “to implement its own obligations,” including verification, “closely following the implementation by other parties on the principle of action-for-action.”

22 July 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia at an Asian security forum in Singapore on 23 July. Rice has reportedly played down chances of any breakthrough at the meeting, which has been organized by China as an informal session, though Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that he thought the gathering "will be very good for advancing the agenda of the talks." Rice said she would deliver "a very strong message" that the process "really needs to be completed, and that it has to be a verification protocol that can give us confidence."

21 July 2008: Washington's top envoy to six-party talks, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said he has proposed a mechanism for verifying North Korea's claims about its nuclear past and is waiting for a response from North Korea. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said North Korea would receive a "very strong message" about its nuclear disarmament obligations at six-party talks this week in Singapore.

16 July 2008: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed recent progress in six-party talks.

12 July 2008: During six-party talks, North Korea agreed to completely disable its main nuclear facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify that all necessary steps had been taken. In return for the deactivation of the nuclear facilities, the other five parties guaranteed delivery of all heavy fuel oil promised in exchange by the end of the same month. The parties have also agreed to a verification mechanism that would include experts from the six nations visiting facilities, reviewing documents and interviewing technical personnel.

11 July 2008: Envoys at six-party talks reportedly made progress on verifying North Korea's nuclear activities, but officials said "big differences" remain. South Korea's chief envoy Kim Sook said, "On verification and monitoring mechanism, we took the common denominator from our positions and gave it to the working group as a basis for its discussions.... But on this issue, the differences in positions among the countries are large." A South Korean official elaborated, saying North Korea and the other five countries disagreed on how the verification should proceed and who would take part: "There are differences on whether the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should take part and what its role would be." However, officials reportedly agreed on "principles" needed to verify North Korea's list of atomic materials and programs. The negotiators are trying to establish a "road map'' that will outline how North Korea will dismantle and abandon its nuclear weapons programs, in the third and final phase of the disarmament effort.

10 July 2008: Six-party talks resumed in Beijing. Chief Chinese envoy Wu Dawei said the meeting "serves as a turning point to further push the six-party talks to a new stage.... Our goals should be to turn the new expectations of the various parties into a new consensus and to turn new aspirations into new momentum."

9 July 2008: The Chair's Summary from the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako included text on North Korea:

We remain committed to achieving the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We urge DPRK, in accordance with the Joint Statement of September 19, 2005 and UNSCRs 1695 and 1718, to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs and return to full compliance with its NPT obligations. We expressed our continuous support of the Six-Party Talks and welcome, though long overdue, DPRK's provision of a declaration as an important step toward achieving these goals. We stress the importance of verifying the declaration, look forward to an early agreement on the principles/regime of verifying the declaration and urge DPRK to fully cooperate in the verification, as well as to swiftly disable all existing nuclear facilities. We emphasize the importance of accelerating the Six-Party Talks toward the full implementation of the Joint Statement of September 19, 2005 including the abandonment of all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs by DPRK. We also strongly urge DPRK to take prompt actions to address other security and human rights/humanitarian concerns including the early resolution of the abduction issue.

8 July 2008: The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that six party talks will resume on Thursday, 10 July in Beijing. The talks are scheduled to last for three days.

A Summit Document on political issues from the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako included text on North Korea:

58. We are committed to resolving regional proliferation challenges by diplomatic means. We express our continuous support for the Six-Party process towards the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the eventual normalization of relations between the relevant Six-Party members through the full implementation of the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005, including the resolution of the outstanding issues of concern such as the abduction issue.

Noting the progress made through the Six-Party process since last year, we welcome, though long overdue, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s provision of a declaration as a step toward the full implementation of the Joint Statement. Comprehensive verification of the declaration is of utmost importance, and we look forward to an early agreement on the principles/regime of the verification. We urge the DPRK to fully cooperate in the verification process, including its effective implementation. We also emphasize the importance of swift disablement of all existing nuclear facilities and the abandonment of all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes by the DPRK. We also urge the DPRK to fully comply with United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 1695 and 1718, including abandoning all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes as well as all other existing WMD and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and to return to full compliance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and IAEA safeguards at an early date.

28 June 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged North Korea to abandon all of its nuclear programmes, materials, and weapons despite what US envoy Sung Kim described as "emotional attachment" to the programme by North Korean officials and nuclear engineers. Rice met with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan to discuss efforts to verify the declaration, which covers nuclear facilities and the production of bomb-making plutonium, but not weapons. Critics of the declaration also say it does not address concerns about a suspected secret highly enriched uranium weapons programme or answer suspicions of nuclear proliferation to Syria. The North Korean government, in a separate document, has acknowledged the US concerns about both issues and promised to try to resolve differences. Rice said she expects "that the North will live up to the obligation that it has undertaken to take those concerns seriously and to address them."

27 June 2008: North Korea blew up the 60-foot cooling tower at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

After the explosion, North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that it "positively assesses" and "welcomes" the end of some trade sanctions and being removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, and also urged Washington completely withdraw its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.

Group of Eight ministers, who were meeting to set the agenda for their annual meeting next month, stressed North Korean's nuclear facilities declaration was just one step in a long and difficult verification process. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "There is a long road ahead," noting that although the declaration covered thousands of pages, it did not clear up questions about North Korea's enrichment of uranium and other concerns.

26 June 2008: The North Korean government gave the United States a 60-page declaration of nuclear facilities. US President Bush responded by announcing that Washington would lift some trade sanctions and end Pyongyang's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism within 45 days. Reportedly, the declaration falls short of the required "complete and correct" declaration, as it "did not answer key questions, such as how many weapons North Korea has built or whether it has exported its nuclear technology to countries like Syria."

In a statement, the US State Department said it would engage in a vigorous excercise to verify the declaration and to address "discrepencies" in the dossier. The State Department indicated, "A comprehensive verification regime would include, among other things, short notice access to declared or suspect sites related to the North Korean nuclear program (and) access to nuclear materials" along with "environmental and bulk sampling of materials and equipment, interviews with personnel in North Korea, as well as access to additional documentation and records for all nuclear-related facilities and operations."

23 June 2008: White House spokeswoman Dana Perino announced that the international community expects North Korea to submit its declaration of nuclear activities on Thursday, 26 June.

22 June 2008: North Korea invited five media organizations - one from each of the other six-party talks countries - to cover live the blowing-up of a cooling tower at its main nuclear site on 27 or 28 June.

18 June 2008: Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping urged North Korea and other countries to move forward six-party talks. In a meeting with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang, Xi said all parties involved "should work together to implement second-phase actions and move six-party talks into a new phase."

17 June 2008: Reuters announced that US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will visit Japan and China this week for talks with officials from their governments and South Korea on North Korea's nuclear programme. However, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos did not suggest any breakthrough was imminent in the six-party talks.

12 June 2008: South Korean official Hwang Joon-Kook, who heads the North Korea nuclear desk at Seoul's foreign ministry, said North Korea has warned that talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme cannot progress unless deliveries of energy aid are guaranteed. Hwang said South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have agreed to speed up energy aid deliveries but want the North to work faster to make its nuclear plants unusable.

North Korea's foreign ministry said separately it held "fruitful" talks this week with US State Department official Sung Kim, who visited Pyongyang on 10-11 June to discuss ongoing work to disable the North's plutonium-producing atomic plants. A foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency the two sides held talks on disablement work and on "completing the provision of political and economic rewards" for it.

In other news, two Japanese companies are being investigated by Japanese police on suspicion of illegally exporting vacuum pumps to North Korea, where they were used in nuclear facilities. The police raided unlisted Tokyo Vacuum, a vacuum device maker, and Nakano Corporation, an unlisted trading firm, last week after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported it had found Japanese vacuum pumps in North Korea. Japan requires trade ministry permission for the export of certain vacuum pumps, out of fear they may be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.

9 June 2008: Sung Kim, director of the office of Korean affairs at the US State Department, travelled to North Korea to talk to North Korean negotiators about work currently under way to disable its plutonium-producing reactor and other nuclear facilities. So far, the State Department says that Pyongyang has completed eight out of 11 activities to "disable" the plants - make them unusable for at least a year.

6 June 2008: In what the media represented as a "subtle shift in the hard-line stance" South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak has taken against North Korea, he praised the DPRK for making progress in international negotiations on its nuclear programsm, saying, "I very positively assess North Korea cooperating with the international community for denuclearization."

5 June 2008: Hyun Hak-Bong, North Korea's deputy negotiator to six-party talks, complained about the "very slow" pace of energy assistance it has received from six-party talks partners. During a meeting between North and South Korea's deputy negotiators, he said, "While the disabling [of the Yongbyon reactor] has been completed for more than 80 percent, overall energy cooperation business is going very slowly - at 30 percent to 36 percent." Hyon's South Korean counterpart, Hwang Joon-Kook, said he would listen to the North's complaints and "try to come up with necessary plans." The United States, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan will resume discussions on the energy aid to North Korea in Seoul Tuesday before holding a full meeting with North Korea in Panmunjom on Wednesday.

1 June 2008: South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Sook, said North Korea is nearly ready to submit a declaration of its nuclear programs. He said North Korea is coordinating with the United States on when it will issue declaration. Kim also said he expects international talks to resume this month.

23 May 2008: The presidents of Russia and China issued a joint statement calling for a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear situation. The declaration said, "The sides positively assessed the progress of the six-party talks on the Korean peninsula's nuclear problem and urge all involved parties to continue dialogue, negotiations and set a course to find a peaceful solution to the problem."

Also on 23 May, the US State Department announced that US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will go to Beijing and Moscow next week for talks about North Korea and that he "was open to a meeting with North Korea's to nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan."

21 May 2008: North Korea has agreed to demolish the cooling tower at its Yongyon nuclear complex soon after it makes a declaration of its nuclear programme, according to a South Korean official. The cooling tower has been the focus of US surveillance in recent years for indications that the North was operating a plutonium-producing reactor there.

19 May 2008: After meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill predicted that the stalled disarmament negotiations with North Korea would see a "quickening pace" in coming weeks and expressed optimism that North Korea will hand over a long-awaited full declaration of its military nuclear program. Hill said he planned to travel to Beijing and Moscow to tell his counterparts there about progress in the talks, although officials were discussing when the trip would happen. A full six-nation meeting, he said, would come soon after the North has provided a declaration. He said he had no plans to travel to North Korea.

10 May 2008: US officials said the documents provided by the DPRK on 8 May date back to 1986 and are an "important first step" in getting a full declaration of North Korea's nuclear activities. In a "fact sheet" providing limited details of the documents, the State Department said the documents cover three major periods when plutonium was produced by North Korea for nuclear weapons.

8 May 2008: North Korea gave the United States copies of 18,822 pages of documents on its plutonium programme to State Department's Korea expert, Sung Kim, who was visiting Pyongyang. A senior US official said the documents "provided detailed logs of how much plutonium was produced by North Korea," which will be "essential to verifying North Korea's plutonium holdings."

On 31 May, the New York Times reported that the documents indicate North Korea has produced 37 kilograms of plutonium, which would be more than the 30 kilograms that North Korea has acknowledged previously but somewhat less than the 40 to 50 kilograms that American intelligence agencies had calculated in the past. A Bush administration official reportedly said no one is taking the documents at face value and some intelligence analysts are particularly wary of the numbers they have seen so far. State Department officials have assembled a team of reactor experts and translators to go through the seven boxes of plutonium documents in hand. The documents do not include any information about North Korea’s uranium program or proliferation activities.

23 April 2008: South Korea's foreign minister said the "last work" on securing North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities is under way and six-nation negotiations could resume next month.

22 April 2008: A a team of US experts met North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan in Pyongyang to discuss the declaration of the North's nuclear activities. The group is led by Sung Kim, director of Korean Affairs office at the State Department. It is due to return 24 April to South Korea. Yonhap news agency said the US team would present a detailed list of data and other materials which North Korea needs to present for verification of its plutonium stockpile. A government source explained, "North Korea is expected to submit a declaration before the end of this month if the US team's activity goes well."

14 April 2008: The Inter Press Service News Agency ran an interesting article on the dissonance between media headlines about six-party talks and the reality of military trends in Northeast Asia: see "Talking Peace, Preparing for War" by John Feffer.

13 April 2008: South Korean President Lee Myung Bak urged North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and said he will cooperate with other involved nations in persuading North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and added that he will keep the "door open" for dialogue with the North. Meanwhile, Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the liberal United Democratic Party (South Korea's main opposition party) vowed to hold back the right-leaning government's tougher stance toward North Korea by strengthening the liberal legislative bloc. He warned that the government's conservative approach may damage the momentum toward achieving a peaceful diplomatic solution to North Korea's nuclear weapons program and also cause a setback in South Korea's overall development.

12 April 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the North Korean nuclear arms issue is resolved, saying the US needs to verify any North Korean declaration of its nuclear activity. During a news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Washington, she said, "We are not yet at a point where we can make a judgment as to whether or not the North Koreans have met their obligations and we are therefore not at a point at which the United States can make a judgment as to whether or not it's time to exercise our obligations." She emphasized that the process involved six nations, not just the US.

On the same day, Radio Free Asia cited "multiple diplomatic sources" in Washington that said a secret agreement was reached between the US and North Korea, under which the US "will make a declaration of North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment program and nuclear cooperation with Syria on behalf of Pyongyang." In return, Radio Free Asia reported, the agreement calls for North Korea to "acknowledge" US concern over the two issues and not to "challenge the facts". The radio station said North Korea agreed to make a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear weapons program "in the coming weeks".

10 April 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, said negotiators have reached an understanding on how to move ahead with deadlocked six-nation disarmament efforts. He said that a meeting with his North Korean counterpart in Singapore this week provided a "way forward," and indicated that coming weeks will be crucial to the plan's success, without elaborating. Hill said a meeting of nuclear envoys from the six nations could take place in Beijing in the next few weeks if all sides "can fulfill their obligations." When he was asked if a six-nation meeting would coincide with the US dropping the North from the terrorism blacklist, Hill said,"When we do the six-party meeting, we will need to be in a position to complete all" elements of the nuclear agreement.

9 April 2008: North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that its negotiators had reached a "consensus" with US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Singapore on US political concessions in return for the nuclear declaration.

8 April 2008: At a plenary meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission's 2008 session, a representative of North Korea's mission to the UN delivered a statement in which he criticized recent US-South Korean joint military excercises in South Korea, arguing that the exercises were "a nuclear war rehearsal to attack the DPRK by force of arms." He also asserted that "violent remarks to preemptively strike the nuclear base of the DPRK were openly made by the south Korean high ranking military official."

1 April 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, said strained inter-Korean relations won't affect efforts to resume the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. While in Seoul, Hill cautioned reporters against "overreacting" to the building tension between North and South Korea. Hill's comments followed North Korea's condemnation of South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak, who reportedly wants to link inter-Korean ties to progress at the multilateral nuclear talks. Commentary published in North Korea's main daily Rodong Sinmun warned that Seoul's tougher policies on the North could lead to "catastrophic consequences". It said, "The Lee regime will be held fully accountable for the irrevocable catastrophic consequences to be entailed by the freezing of the inter-Korean relations and the disturbance of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula due to its sycophancy towards the U.S. and its moves for confrontation with the North."

26 March 2008: Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, warned Tuesday that internal politics in North Korea could interfere with the nuclear deal. He said Pyongyang had informed Washington on a number of occasions that it wanted to reach the deal before President George W. Bush left office in January 2009, but indicated, "North Korea is a country that has a very vertically oriented governing structure to be sure ... And so I think it is fair to say that there are people in North Korea who really are not with the program here, really rather continue to be producing this plutonium for whatever reason."

14 March 2008: US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill met with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, for eight hours of negotiations. He said that other members of the six-party talks - South Korea, China, Russia and Japan - were briefed and that discussions would continue over the weekend.Sung Kim, chief of the Korean affairs office, stayed behind in case of a possible follow-up with the North Koreans, but it wasn't yet decided whether there would be more meetings. Hill told reporters that the talks in Geneva were probably the most substantive that the United States has had with North Korea since problems developed in December over disarming Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program: "We certainly are further along in this consultation than we were when I arrived this morning," Hill said after meetings withKim Kye-gwan. "There has been progress."

13 March 2008: The top nuclear negotiators from the United States and North Korea met in Geneva to resume talks over the stalled aid-for-disarmament deal. Before going to the meeting, US negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters, "I think we should be a little flexible on format, but with the understanding that flexibility on format doesn't mean flexibility on getting a complete and correct declaration." On 12 March, the Washington Post reported there are "signs that the two sides, with the help of China, have structured a diplomatic framework that could resolve an impasse that has blocked a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs."

10 March 2008: US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said North Korea must send a "clear signal" to fully declare its nuclear programmes in order to get itself removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. He argued, "They have not yet shown us even the elements of what will constitute a complete and concrete declaration," saying the US couldn't remove the country from its terrorist list "until we see a clear signal from the North Koreans that they are going to do their part with regards to the declaration."

3 March 2008: North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that US-South Korean war games that started on the weekend "show that the United States continues to pursue its hostile policy of squeezing our republic to death," and warned that they would "put the brakes on the denuclearisation process on the Korean peninsula." The New York Times reported that the criticism "dampened hopes for warmer ties between the United States and North Korea," though US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he still hopes for resumption of six-party talks: "If we can resolve these matters in the next few weeks, which I think is possible, I think we could depending on the views of the Chinese host, get together for a 6-party meeting to plan the next phase."

29 February 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he might go to Beijing on the weekend to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, for talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

27 February 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travelled to Tokyo "seeking Japanese help in pressing North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons." After her meetings with Japanese officials, including Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, Rice said "we have had constructive discussions here today and those will add to our ability to perhaps build some momentum toward the completion of the second phase." She instructed Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill to remain in Beijing to to study the ideas discussed yesterday by Rice and Chinese President Hu Jintao on overcoming the impasse of North Korea's nuclear programme.

26 February 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Beijing to discuss "several new ideas on how to overcome the current stalemate" over North Korea's nuclear programme. Rice said that US and Chinese officials were looking at ways to "synchronize" the actions North Korea must take to meet its obligations, and the benefits it is to receive for those measures. She said, "We are the cusp of something very special here."

20 February 2008: Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the US envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, met in Beijing with Kim Kye-gwan, who leads the North Korean negotiating team. Mr. Hill said that they had “a good, substantial discussion” but that there was no breakthrough. According to Hill, Kim Kye-gwan continued to deny North Korea had a clandestine programme to develop highly enriched uranium.

13 February 2008: South Korean nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said it will take time to move the deadlocked North Korea nuclear talks forward because Pyongyang must "change its previous claims" regarding uranium enrichment in order for it to submit a full declaration of its nuclear facilities as is required by the October agreement. Speaking at the one-year anniversary of the disarmament deal reached in February 2007, Chun said eight of 11 measures that North Korea promised to take to disable its nuclear facilities have been completed, adding that it would take more than a year to reactivate the plants when disablement is completed.

2 February 2008: The US State Department's top Korea expert, Sung Kim, visited North Korea and pressed its foreign ministry officials to provide the full declaration of its nuclear programme. He did not recieve the list. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said separately that "issues of concern" in implementing the denuclearisation pact were raised.

1 February 2008: Chun Yung-woo, Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, said the nuclear dismantlement program that the United States led with regard to the former Soviet Union - the Cooperative Threat Reduction programme - can apply to North Korea. Chun argued the programme could be modified and adapted to North Korea, citing the need for 5,000 North Korean nuclear scientists to become involved in the denuclearization of North Korea. As part of the program, he suggested peaceful use of the land occupied by the Yongbyon nuclear complex, such as using it for a uranium refinery, in an "environmentally friendly way." He expected such a transformation to create jobs for North Koreans. He also proposed the establishment of a nuclear research center in Pyongyang, where South Korean experts can conduct their research.

Commenting on the provision of a light-water reactor to North Korea, Chun said it will not be made until the last stage of denuclearization and the return of North Korea to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. He indicated that construction of the reactor will take six or seven years. He also said North Korea has completed eight out of eleven measures for disabling nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and the rest will be finished after the nuclear fuel rods are all removed.

28 January 2008: South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said six-party talks will likely not make any progress for the time being. Also on 28 January, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency rebuked Jay Lefkowitz, US envoy on North Korean human rights, saying, "Lefkowitz was impudent enough to poke his nose into the nuclear issue, only to bring shame to himself.''

27 January 2008: A "diplomatic source" revealed that North Korea has reduced the number of nuclear fuel rods being removed from the nuclear facility at Yongbyon to about 30 a day, down from about 80 a day. The source indicated the slowdown could extend the removal timetable from the agreed February deadline to early April. More than 1,000 fuel rods, or over one-eighth of the total, have been discharged so far, according to the source. North Korean officials indicated earlier this month it would slow down disablement work in Yongbyon, complaining that the other participants in the six-party process have not fulfilled their commitments quickly enough. Shipments of heavy fuel oil to North Korea began in summer, but a batch due from Russia in November reached the country only this week due to technical difficulties. Delivery of energy-linked equipment and material - which are part of the energy aid - has only been partially made, also due to technical difficulties, diplomats involved in the six-party process said.

22 January 2008: North Korea's official newspaper Minju Joson said in a commentary that the United States failed to fulfill its promise to remove Pyongyang from US terrorism and trade blacklists by the end of 2007 as agreed. The commentary said, "Under this situation, it is pretty evident that we cannot carry out our commitments unilaterally. ... If the U.S. truly intends to move the Korean peninsula denuclearization forward, all it should do is be sincere about its own commitments."

Also on 22 January, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rebuked Lefkowitz for criticizing Six-Party Talks. She said he "doesn't know what's going on in the six-party talks, and he certainly has no say on what American policy will be in the six-party talks."

18 January 2008: US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said that Lefkowitz, who criticized the Six-Party Talks, "is not ... somebody who speaks authoritatively about the six-party talks. ...his comments certainly don't represent the views of the Administration. We believe that the six-party talks provides a forum, a mechanism and an opportunity to realize the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. So I can only say that he must have been expressing his own opinions when he was speaking about his assessment of the six-party talks."

17 January 2008: Jay Lefkowitz, US Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, claimed that the Bush administration was reviewing its support for the Six Party talks, announcing, “It is appropriate now to reevaluate – to look at what has worked and what has not.” He believes "North Korea is not serious in disarming in a timely manner," and argued in his speech that "It is increasingly clear that North Korea will remain in its present nuclear status when the (Bush) administration leaves office in one year." He also criticized China and the outgoing Roh Moo-hyun administration in South Korea for "preferring the status quo over a process of change".

14 January 2008: Jeffrey Lewis of ArmsControlWonk.com has posted some important information about the delay in North Korea's nuclear disablement process, pointing out that "all of the disablement steps are believed completed save for the unloading of fuel, which was delayed by the need to ready the cooling pond to receive the spent fuel and is on schedule to be completed in 100 days."

11 January 2008: US envoy Christopher Hill met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov discuss recent developments regarding the deal with North Korea. Ahead of the meeting, an unidentified Russian diplomat was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying, "Christopher Hill has already visited four countries participating in the six-party process. It is very interesting for us to learn his point of view. On the missed deadline, the diplomat said, "Moscow is not going to dramatize the situation. The six-party process can both accelerate and slow down." After the meeting, Losyukov expressed frustration with the speed of the process, saying, "We are unanimous in our regret at the slow movement we have within the process, but at the same time we recognise that this is a very difficult and bumpy road which we have to go along."

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hill commented on North Korea's failure to deliver a complete declaration so far, saying, "They are obliged to give a complete and correct declaration, a declaration which would cover all their nuclear materials, all their nuclear facilities and all their nuclear programmes and any nuclear cooperation they have with anyone." He also said none of the countries party to the deal has seen the final declaration.

10 January 2008: US envoy Christopher Hill said the new deadline for North Korea to dismantle its Yongbyon reactor and submit a declaration of all nuclear facilities and programs is the end of February. He believes the entire denuclearization process in North Korea can be completed within 2008.

7 January 2008: Christopher Hill emphasized the need for patience and perseverance with North Korea, saying, "They were prepared to give a declaration which wasn't going to be complete and correct, and we felt that it was better for them to give us a complete one even if it's going to be a late one ... We understand that this is always a difficult process, one that is rarely completed on time. So I think we have to have a little sense of patience and perseverance." Hill said he was prepared to move forward in the nuclear negotiations, but not without a "complete and correct declaration" from Pyongyang.

Hill rejected the claim that North Korean officials had already submitted its declaration. And a spokesman for South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang had not handed the list to China, which chairs the six-party talks, saying, "As far as we know, there was a consultation between North Korea and the United States about the nuclear declaration but we have not heard of North Korea submitting the list."

4 January 2008: A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the government submitted its declaration of all its nuclear facilities. The spokesperson said the declaration was drawn up in November, and that the Foreign Ministry has "notified the United States of it." He also said that North Korea has conducted "enough discussions" with US officials, after they demanded more negotiations on its draft declaration. He further said, "As far as the nuclear declaration on which wrong opinion is being built up by some quarters is concerned, the DPRK has done what it should do."

In response, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said North Korea has not yet provided a complete nuclear declaration.

North Korean officials have said the government slowed the pace of disablement because aid was not coming as quickly as it expected, and because the US did not remove North Korea from its terrorism list. In response to the US' suspicions of North Korea having a uranium enrichment programme, the spokesperson said, "When the U.S. side raised 'suspicion' about uranium enrichment, the DPRK (North Korea) allowed it to visit some military facilities in which imported aluminium tubes were used as an exception and offered its samples ..., clarifying with sincerity that the controversial aluminium tubes had nothing to do with the uranium enrichment." He further said, "We still hold hope that the Oct. 3 agreement will be implemented smoothly if all countries participating in the six-party talks make sincere efforts based on the principle of action-for-action."

A separate report from North Korea on 4 January reportedly said, "(We) will further strengthen our war deterrent capabilities in response to U.S. attempts to initiate nuclear war."

3 January 2008: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described North Korea's failure to meet the year-end-deadline to disclose its nuclear facilities as natural. Speaking to a news conference, she said, "The pace is faster in some areas and slower in some areas. This is natural ... We believe the comprehensive implementation of actions will open broader prospects for the six-party talks." Meanwhile, in Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was eager to see North Korea's declaration, but added that Pyongyang should "not sacrifice completeness and accuracy for speed." US negotiator Christopher Hill will leave tomorrow for meetings in Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Moscow to discuss efforts to help North Korea fulfill its commitments. He is not scheduled to travel to Pyongyang or meet with North Korean negotiators.

1 January 2008: North Korea missed the end-of-2007 deadline to disable and then dismantle its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor and present a list of all its nuclear programmes, in return for economic aid and political concessions from the international community. The governments of South Korea, Japan, and the United States said it was unfortunate North Korea missed the deadline, and urged it to meet its commitments as soon as possible. Experts say the deal reached in February 2007 would not necessarily be jeapordized by the delay, saying it was caused by a dispute that has arisen over North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment activities (see 21 December 2007 entry).

21 December 2007: US scientists reportedly found traces of enriched uranium on smelted aluminium tubing from North Korea, which has persistently denied it had engaged in a uranium-based nuclear programme. The US government is insisting the tubes are evidence that North Korea had a clandestine uranium weapons programme, because they could be used as outer casings for centrifuges needed to process uranium gas into weapons fuel. However, the Washington Post pointed out the traces also could have come from exposure to other equipment or people exposed to both sets of equipment, citing former UN weapons inspector David Albright. For example, Pakistan has acknowledged providing North Korea with a sample centrifuge kit so the tubes could have picked up enriched uranium from Pakistani equipment: "Albright ... said the equipment did not need to be in the same room but could have picked up the uranium traces from a person who was exposed to both sets of equipment. He said that several Energy Department laboratories have highly sophisticated methods of detecting the nuclear material from items that had been thoroughly decontaminated. 'There is a real art in extracting enriched uranium from samples,' Albright said. The labs can detect micrograms of enriched uranium, which he said is 'way beyond what any normal radiation detector would pick up.' However, he said, such minute quantities could easily have come from other sources."

20 December 2007: The president-elect of South Korea, Lee Myung-Bak, said in his first news conference since elections that full economic cooperation with North Korea would only begin after Pyongyang dismantled its nuclear weapons.

19 December 2007: Sung Kim, the US State Department's top Korea expert, headed to North Korea to review work on the disablement of its main nuclear complex. He is to inspect the North's plutonium-making reactor at Yongbyon, and meet officials to move forward international disarmament talks.

18 December 2007: China's top nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, inspected disablement work at North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, and reported the process if "going on smoothly". Meanwhile, an official at the South Korean Foreign Ministry "said nuclear experts began transferring irradiated fuel rods from the plutonium-making reactor in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, to water pools late last week — a key step in disabling the facility."

Apparently, the time required to safely remove the fuel rods from the reactor means the year-end deadline for disablement is likely to be missed. The South Korean official said that process is expected to be completed by mid-March, while he hopes 10 other disablement measures would meet their year-end deadline. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang has not commented directly on the probable missed deadline, but said talks have made positive progress and that the parties involved "shall overcome difficulties."

14 December 2007: A US official said that in Kim Jong-Il's response to Bush's letter, North Korea would live up to its obligations under a deal to abandon its nuclear arms programs and expects Washington to keep its end of the bargain.

13 December 2007: Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the US and China are pressing North Korea to meet a 31 December deadline to fully disclose its nuclear weapons programs, stating, "We understand that the North Koreans are today continuing to work on a declaration ... We are hopeful that we would have the complete declaration provided around the year end." Hill also said the US expects "additional discussions" later in December, without elaborating.

12 December 2007: Officials from North Korea and five negotiating partners held talks in Beijing to discuss the provision of energy aid to North Korea in return for denuclearisation. According to AFP, "Chun Yung-Woo, South Korea's head delegate to the nuclear disarmament talks, told Yonhap news agency earlier that the meeting would focus on assistance other than heavy fuel oil and which country would provide what kind of aid." The report went on to explain:

But an unnamed Japanese official told Kyodo news agency late Wednesday that no specific provisions had been agreed upon by the parties, although North Korea opined it should be given aid "at a steady pace" since it had started the denuclearisation process.

"There was a certain level of progress, but we have not reached a point where the list is finalised," the official was quoted as saying. "That will be coordinated through diplomatic channels."

Under an October agreement, North Korea is to disable its key nuclear plants at Yongbyon and disclose all its nuclear programmes by the end of the year in exchange for 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

It began disabling the Yongbyon plants early last month and China and the United States took turns each to provide 50,000 tons of heavy oil. Russia has reportedly offered to make the next shipment.

Seoul sent 50,000 tons in July when the North first shut down the Yongbyon reactor.

Meanwhile, North and South Korea began three days of talks on new projects designed to increase economic cooperation between the two countries. Bloomberg reported, "Delegations from the two countries will discuss military guarantees for telecommunications services and customs checks for projects including the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement. They also plan to discuss a joint fishing ground in the Yellow Sea, which has been delayed by disputes over the maritime border between the two countries."

7 December 2007: US envoy to North Korea Christopher Hill said disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities is on schedule and that the removal of fuel from Yongbyon facility is under way. 31 December is the deadline for North Korea to present a full list of its nuclear facilities; skepticism seems high that the deadline will be met, but Hill said, "I do believe they can have a draft produced before the end of the year." Hill said work to disable North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant "are moving quite on schedule," and thatworkers are cleaning up contaminants before discharging the fuel from the reactor, considered a key disabling step: "As I understand, all the equipment is in and the cleanup is almost ... completed or soon to be completed. So I think we can expect discharging of fuel to get under way very soon if it has not gotten under way now."

Hill also delivered a letter from US President George Bush to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, which offered "the prospect of normalised relations if the North abandons all of its nuclear weapons programmes." The letter is the first direct contact between George Bush and Kim Jong-Il.

Meanwhile, Arms Control Wonk takes a look at the possibilities of verifying North Korea's stocks of plutonium.

4 December 2007: The top US negotiator for North Korea's nuclear programme, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, visited the Yongbyon reactor. Hill met with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun. They were expected to discuss a timetable for North Korea's presentation of a full list of its nuclear facilities, though no details of the meeting have yet been released. Mr Hill has stressed that it must be a comprehensive list and include details of North Korea's suspected secret programme to build uranium-enriched bombs.

4 December 2007: Six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, which were anticipated to take place 6-8 December, have been delayed. South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong told reporters there did not appear to be enough time this week to arrange the meeting. He did not offer further details. The next session of the talks "would likely outline steps to start taking apart the North's nuclear weapons facilities, and the rewards Pyongyang would receive for compliance."

29 November 2007: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he expects North Korea to release a full list of its nuclear weapons programs, materials, and facilities "within days". Hill said work on disabling the Yongbyon complex had been "very successful". US experts are supervising the disabling, including the removal of 8000 spent fuel rods, an interim measure before the facilities are dismantled.

11 October 2007: US nuclear experts went to North Korea for talks on disabling the North's main nuclear reactor. They are to draw up a specific plan for the Yongbyon disablement process, and subsequent teams of experts are to assist in carrying out the technical aspects.

3 October 2007: The Six-Parties released a joint statement in which North Korea pledged to complete the disablement of its plutonium-production facilities and provide a full accounting of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007.

24 September 2007: On Friday China announced that the six-nation talks, which were postponed last week, will resume in Beijing on Thursday, September 27. On Friday and Saturday, a delegation from Syria met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang including Choe Tae Bok, the head of the Workers' Party, and Kim Yong Nam, the titular head of state and leader of the legislature. The meeting has fueled speculation about suspected Syrian-DPRK nuclear collaboration, though both countries deny the charge.

19 September 2007: China reported Tuesday that it had delivered a shipment of heavy fuel oil to North Korea as part of an international effort to keep negotiations on dismantling North Korean nuclear programs on track, but said no date had been set for the next round of talks. South Korean media have reported that North Korea wants to delay the meeting because it is busy preparing for an Oct. 2-4 summit between Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyon.

17 September 2007: China has postponed the six-party talks that had been expected to begin on Wednesday according to a Japanese Ministry official. China gave no reason for the postponement and gave no new date for the start of talks, the official said.

12 September 2007: North Korea has given full access to experts from the United States, Russia and China on a rare visit to the reclusive nation to examine ways to disable its nuclear weapons program, the State Department said Wednesday. North Korea agreed at a recent bilateral meeting in Geneva to declare and disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.

12 September 2007: The top U.S. envoy to South Korea said Wednesday that he believes a summit between President George W. Bush and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il can take place next year if the North scraps all of its nuclear programs, according to reports.

11 September 2007: The US ambassador verified that the US has provided more than 2 million dollars for UN nuclear monitoring in North Korea. The IAEA's policy-making board of governors had on July 9 granted its chief Mohammed ElBaradei 1.7 million euros (2.3 million dollars) in 2007 and 2.2 million euros in 2008 for "monitoring and verification activities" in North Korea.

10 September 2007: South Korea wants North Korea to complete the dismantling of its nuclear weapons as early as mid- 2008, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator said. The biggest challenge is to work out the elimination of fissile materials, including the existing plutonium, as well as the explosive devices,'' Chun Yung Woo told a seminar in Seoul today. This should be completed ``before the end of 2008, hopefully by the summer of 2008.'

10 September 2007: A team of US officials and nuclear experts have entered North Korea to survey Pyongyang's nuclear facilities in cooperation with Russian and Chinese experts. These inspections are expected to "set the stage for the next phase of disabling" said the head of the US delegation, Sung Kim.

5 September 2007: North Korea is closer to being removed from the US state sponsors of terrorism list following commitments to end its nuclear weapons program, a US official said. US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill told the North Koreans at a Geneva meeting at the weekend that there were only a few more issues that needed to be resolved before Pyongyang's removal from the blacklist.

4 September 2007: In Mongolia's capital Ulan Bator, North Korea and Japan began talks to normalize their diplomatic relations. Officials discussed both North Korea's nuclear program as well as its past abductions of Japanese citizens. Both issues are critical to the restoration of relations between the two states.

28 August 2007: Japan and North Korea will hold talks next week in Ulan Bator to discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states, as part of a six-country deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for diplomatic relations and aid. The two states held similar talks in Hanoi in March of this year, but those talks stalled over the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s.

27 August 2007: The US State Department will engage in bilateral meetings with North Korea in Geneva on September 1 and 2 towards improving relations between the two states.

23 August 2007: The United States asked North Korea to disable three nuclear reactors at the Yongbyon site. The US told North Korea that the finalization of North Korea's declaration of its nuclear program and the disabling of its nuclear facilities should take place in parallel.

19 August 2007: The United States and North Korea will likely hold talks in Geneva later this month, to normalize ties between the two states.

8 August 2007: North Korea proposed that aid negotiated in the 6-party talks include "investment aid" not only "consumption aid" such as the heavy fuel oil previously discussed. " Investment-based aid is that which helps continued production of energy, such as by mending power stations," South Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam told reporters.

On 7 August 2007, working-level talks began between North and South Korea, the US, China, Russia, and Japan to "iron out the details of an aid-for-disarmament deal with North Korea." North Korea has received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil provided by Seoul in return for the shutdown of its sole operating nuclear reactor last month, and is to eventually get further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs.

On 5 August 2007, China announced it will offer 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea this month under the second phase of an aid-for-disarmament nuclear agreement on the communist state. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying the planned Chinese aid would be the main agenda for a six-nation energy working group meeting to open here this week.

On 31 July 2007, the leader of the IAEA team of inspectors in North Korea, Adel Tolba, reported that North Korea has cooperated fully with the team, who monitored the shutdown and sealing of the country's sole plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon.

On 29 July 2007, North Korea's new foreign minister reaffirmed his country's commitment to ending its nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, zix-nation working-group talks on energy aid to North Korea were slated for next month. They will likely be held at Panmunjom, a village on the inter-Korean border. The six nations agreed to hold a series of working-group talks to implement a Feb. 13 agreement, which calls for the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for energy aid and other benefits. South Korea is to host working-group talks on the energy aid.

On 26 July 2007, a second team of IAEA inspectors left for North Korea to monitor the shutdown and sealing of the country's sole plutonium-producing reactor. The six-member International Atomic Energy Agency team left Vienna for Beijing on Thursday evening, and the IAEA said it would arrive in Pyongyang on Saturday. The experts are replacing an initial team that went to North Korea on July 12 to supervise the shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor, the key component of the North's nuclear program. Officials said the team would put agency seals on parts of the complex that have been closed and supervise the installation of surveillance cameras, whose recordings will be regularly downloaded and analyzed.

On 21 July 2007, North Korea's nuclear negotiator stated that his country should be provided with light-water nuclear reactors to offset energy supply reductions caused by the proposed closure of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities.  It is difficult to develop weapons grade nuclear material in a light-water reactor, whereas the current reactor at Yongbyon can produce such materials with relative facility.

On 20 July 2007, the current round of six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program came to a close.  Focus will now be shifted to technical wrangling over disarmament steps, envoys said on Friday as they endorsed a broad plan lacking any deadline.  In September, fresh six-way talks are expected to "work out the road map" for implementing disarmament steps, the Chinese envoy Wu said.

On 17 July 2007, negotiators for six-party talks gathered in Beijing, expecting to resume discussions tomorrow about "how to scrap the Yongbyon complex ahead of North Korea's eventual abandonment of nuclear weapons. Under the February agreement, the next steps should include North Korea making an inventory of its nuclear arsenal in return for an easing of economic curbs, the normalisation of diplomatic relations, and its removal from the US list of nations viewed as sponsoring terrorism. The end goal is its complete nuclear disarmament."

On 16 July 2007, the IAEA confirmed that North Korea has shut down its only operating nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

On 11 July 2007, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said an IAEA inspections team is to be deployed to North Korea by the end of the week to monitor the shut down of the country's main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. This will be the first team invited back to North Korea since U.N. inspectors were expelled there in late 2002 after accusations Pyongyang had violated previous international nuclear agreements. Pyongyang agreed it would begin the shutdown of Yongbyon as soon as it receives a 50,000 ton shipment of fuel oil from South Korea.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said Wednesday the shipment is due to arrive in the North Saturday.

The fuel shipment is part of a five-nation agreement reached in February with North Korea to dismantle all nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic incentives.

On 10 July 2007, the US announced it expects six-party talks to resume in Bejing around July 18.

On 16 June 2007, North Korea invited IAEA inspectors to visit and discuss shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

On 12 June 2007, the New York Times reported progress on a deal over North Korea's $25 million in frozen funds, with Russia and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York acting as intermediaries in the transfer.

On 17 April 2007, satellite images have detected unusual activity at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, raising hope that North Korea still intends to comply with the February disarmament deal.

On 13 April 2007, North Korea said it is waiting to confirm whether funds frozen in a Macau bank account have been released. The US announced the freeze had been lifted earlier in the week but North Korea has yet to withdraw any funds.  The deadline for North Korea to shut down its nuclear reactor is Saturday, but it is unlikely that deadline will be met.

On 11 April 2007, US delegation chief Bill Richardson said North Korean officials have assured him they would invite back UN nuclear inspectors as soon as they had access to the funds frozen in Banco Delta Asia. The funds are expected to be released Wednesday or Thursday.

On 3 April 2007, the United States and North Korea began planning to hold bilateral talks as soon as a financial dispute is resolved to lay the groundwork for a resumption of six-nation nuclear negotiations.

On 27 March 2007, Colin McAskill, spokesman for North Korea's Daedong bank, said his bank's owners oppose mandatory money transfers from accounts in Banco Delta Asia to any other bank. Daedong is among several North Korean banks whose accounts in Macao's Banco Delta Asia have been frozen at the request of the United States over counterfeiting and money laundering accusations against North Korea since September.  North Korea has refused to return to six-party talks until $25 million of its funds frozen at Banco Delta Asia are released.

On 23 March 2007, six-party talks ended without further progress, though diplomats hope to hold another round of talks soon.

On 22 March 2007, talks continued to stall.

On 21 March 2007, North Korea continued to boycott meetings on denuclearization at the six-party talks, waiting for the funds to be released from Banco Delta Asia.

On 20 March 2007, North Korean negotiators boycotted a meeting at the six-party talks.  Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said it appears the North delegates were staying away until until it is able to access the $25m that was frozen in a Macau bank, which the US promised would be transfered to another bank in China. Meanwhile, Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, said his country will resume its membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency soon after it shuts down its nuclear facilities as agreed upon in the February agreement.

On 19 March 2007, a new round of six-party talks began.

On 18 March 2007, the US said it has resolved the bank dispute between North Korea and the US, announcing that $25m of North Korean funds, which were frozen in a Macau bank amid money laundering allegations, would be transferred to an account in Beijing.

On 15 March 2007, North Korea confirmed that it is preparing to shut down its nuclear facilities. North Korea also reiterated its intention to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify that action. Meanwhile, the US offered North Korea power generators for civilian use during working group discussions in Beijing. South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo, who chairs the energy working group, said that the US will also participate in an initial energy aid program to provide 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to the North in return for Pyongyang’s shutdown of nuclear facilities. South Korea also said it will provide North Korea with energy equivalent to 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil in exchange for its taking initial denuclearisation steps. South Korea will also begin sending North Korea fertilizer later in March.

On 14 March 2007, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said North Korea seems committed to the February disarmament agreement but wants sanctions against it lifted first. ElBaradei said his visit had been "quite useful" and had opened the way to a normal relationship. He said North Korea was positive about returning to IAEA membership.

On 13 March 2007, IAEA chief ElBaradei arrived in North Korea for talks over dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme.

On 9 March 2007, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said the US must lift sanctions against his country before it will shut down its nuclear reactor: "The United States promised to resolve the problem of sanctions against our country within 30 days. If this promise is kept, then we will shut down our nuclear facilities in 60 days."

On 8 March 2007, talks between Japan and North Korea on normalizing relations ended after only 45 minutes, leaving wide gaps as their top envoys blamed each other for the lack of agreement on key historical issues. No date was immediately announced for more talks.

On 6 March 2007, the United States and North Korea wrapped up historic talks on establishing diplomatic ties on an optimistic note, but the United States wants Pyongyang to "come clean" about any uranium enrichment program and eliminate all nuclear weapons before normalizing relations. In addition, North Korea invited IAEA inspectors back to the country; Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is due to travel to North Korea on March 13 for a two-day visit, during which he intends to discuss the details of monitoring the freeze of the country's nuclear programme and the eventual dismantling of its nuclear facilities.

On 5 March 2007, the United States and North Korea began talks on normalizing relations. US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met for this first round of talks in New York.

On 2 March 2007, South Korea refused to fully resume aid shipments to North Korea until the communist regime follows through on its disarmament agreement. North Korea reluctantly agreed to put off the aid issue until late April, after the deadline for the communist regime to shut down its main nuclear reactor. Previously, the North demanded more talks this month. However, North and South Korea did agree to resume reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

On 1 March 2007, American officials announced that China and the United States are close to an accord to let North Korea regain some of the $25 million in its funds frozen in a bank in Macao now that it has agreed to start dismantling its nuclear arms program.  Meanwhile, Japan has agreed to hold talks with North Korea on normalizing ties next week, and it plans to take up the dispute over citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang's agents decades ago.

On 27 February 2007, A 50-strong South Korean delegation led by Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung arrived in Pyongyang for talks that were suspended - along with food aid - after North Korea's 2006 weapons tests. "The meeting is to create the future of the Korean people and the hope of the Korean peninsula," Mr Lee told reporters. "We will also focus on normalising the framework of inter-Korean dialogue and discuss ways of establishing a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula." Joint economic and rail projects are set to be on the agenda, but the main topic of discussion will be the resumption of badly needed food aid.

On 23 February 2007, IAEA Chief Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei accepted an invitation from the DPRK to visit the country for talks in March. Dr. ElBaradei welcomed the visit as an opportunity to discuss "issues of mutual concern" and "work toward the normalization of the relationship between DPRK and the Agency." Meanwhile, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan is expected to visit New York early next month to meet his US counterpart Christopher Hill for discussions on follow-up measures to the nuclear accord. He will participate in a working group meeting on normalizing U.S.-North Korea relations, which is one of five set up under the 13 February agreement. Chun Yung-woo, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, also said his country plans to arrange the first meeting of a working group on energy and economic assistance for North Korea during the week of March 12. Japan, however, continues to express disappointment with last week's agreementby urging the US, through Vice-President Dick Cheney, to keep on designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The US is scheduled to remove North Korea's terror-state designation as one of the first-stage conditions of the 13 February agreement.

On 13 February 2007, the fifth round of six-party talks concluded with an agreement for North Korea's nuclear disarmament.  The deal gives North Korea economic, energy, and humanitarian aid in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear reactor, seeks to normalize relations between North Korea and the US and North Korea and Japan. It does not expressly require the North to give up existing weapons or testing now, and the agreement does not spell out how negotiators will resolve issues that have derailed previous pacts. However, the working groups set up under the agreement will meet during the sixth round of the Six-Party Talks on 19 March 2007 to discuss on actions for the next phase.

On 9 February 2007, the United States insisted at bilateral talks in Beijing that North Korea dismantle its key nuclear reactor if it wants to restore diplomatic contacts with Washington. Kim Kye Gwan has been reported as saying that North Korea was ready to halt or freeze its nuclear program and grant UN inspectors access to its nuclear sites if it was provided with $100 million-worth of fuel and could restore diplomatic relations with the U.S. Hill said North Korea must dismantle its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pyongyang to stop production of weapons-grade plutonium.

The original resolution plan, which China devised and submitted to the current six-party talks in Beijing, said Yongbyon must be frozen or sealed within two months and North Korea provided with alternative energy sources. Hill said he did not like the word "freeze," making it clear that not all differences had been ironed out. Kim Kye Gwan said the talks inspired cautious optimism.

However, Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's top nuclear envoy, said he did not think there would be an agreement. North Korea has reportedly rejected a U.S. proposal to replace the term "suspension" with the term "dismantling" in relation to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in a final document of the ongoing phase of the six-party talks.

On 7 February 2007, six-party talks resumed in Beijing. North Korea offered a preliminary pledge to begin eliminating its nuclear weapons program.  China submitted a draft plan that delegates had indicated would detail the beginning steps toward North Korean nuclear disarmament.  The document was expected to include a “set of actions taken in a finite amount of time,” US negotiator Christopher Hill said prior to its release.  He said Pyongyang would be expected to take those actions in a period of “single-digit weeks.”

On 30 January 2007, a second round of talks between US and North Korean officials on US financial sanctions began in Beijing. The first day ended with little sign of progress. China has announced that parallel talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs will resume February 8, but Pyongyang has said there will be no progress until the financial sanctions are lifted. In an interview with Reuters, US negotiator Christopher Hill said North Korea's commitment to give up its nuclear weapons was "strong" and Washington would not allow other issues, including a dispute over U.N. Development Programme money, to undercut a nuclear deal.

On 29 January 2007, a source revealed that the United States is considering easing financial restrictions related to Macao's Banco Delta Asia that will lead to the unfreezing of about $13 million in North Korean assets. Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear arms drive are expected to resume on February 8.

On 27 January 2007, North Korea dismissed allegations it is cooperating with Iran in nuclear development, accusing Western media of spreading lies to damage the communist country's reputation. The "assertion is nothing but a sheer lie and fabrication intended to tarnish the image of (North Korea) by charging it with nuclear proliferation," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

On 25 January 2007, a day after the US said UN Development Fund (UNDP) money may have been diverted to the North's leaders who used the cash to build nuclear weapons, North Korea accused the US of smear campaign: "The United States is kicking up another anti-DPRK North Korea racket . . . to meet its dirty political aims." Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign minister held phone discussions with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts about the renewal of six-party talks.

On 23 January 2007, the North's nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan told his South Korean counterpart that Pyongyang could freeze its nuclear activities if the United States eases its financial restrictions on the impoverished communist country. Kim also said his country was willing to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to enter the country to confirm whether North Korea halts the operation of a 5-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang.

On 22 January 2007, Christopher Hill, the US chief negotiator on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, said talks could re-start soon, after host China agreed to arrange them as quickly as possible once it consults with the other parties in the six-nation talks.

On 19 January 2007, North Korea's negotiator Kim Kye-gwan said he reached a "certain agreement" with US negotiator Christopher Hill during talks in Berlin.  Although Hill played down the North's announcement, it brightened the prospects that the six-nation nuclear talks would make progress when they resume in Beijing - tentatively scheduled to begin in February. In addition, an anonymous US official told Reuters that the Bush Administration is contemplating releasing part of the $24 million frozen in Banco Delta Asia, once investigation of North Korea's accounts are complete.

On 17 January 2007, lead negotiators from North Korea and the United States met today in Germany to discuss ways to prepare for the next round of negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, Russia urged the United States to scrap financial sanctions against North Korea.

On 11 January 2007, South Korea and China agreed to work together for the resumption of six-party talks at an early date.

On 22 December 2007, six-party talks in Beijing recessed after failing to see progress, with Pyongyang vowing to continue with its nuclear weapons development. The parties discussed ways to implement a September 2005 joint statement produced at the end of an earlier round of talks, in which Pyongyang agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for incentives from other participants.

On 18 December 2007, six-party talks resumed in Beijing.

On 7 December 2006, North Korea announced it believes Washington has atomic weapons deployed in South Korea and it will not halt its nuclear program as long as this threat persists.

On 6 December 2006, the United States announced it offered a detailed package of economic and energy assistance in exchange for North Korea’s giving up nuclear weapons and technology. But the offer, made last week during two days of intense talks in Beijing, would hinge on North Korea’s agreeing to begin dismantling some of the equipment it is using to expand its nuclear arsenal, even before returning to negotiations.

On 30 November 2006, the US banned the export of luxury goods to North Korea, as part of US sanctions for the North's nuclear test.

On 22 November 2006, a senior North Korean official said the DPRK does not intend to abandon its nuclear programme when it returns to the six-party talks.

On 31 October 2006, North Korea, China, and the US agreed to resume six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

On 14 October 2006, UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1718 condemning the claimed nuclear test by the DPRK; demanding that no further nuclear tests or launches of ballistic missiles take place; demanding that DPRK immediately return to the NPT; imposing an embargo of military technology and luxury goods, and more.

On 11 October 2006 North Korea warned that it will regard increased pressure from the United States as a “declaration of war” that will be met with “physical measures,” as Japan announced tough new sanctions against the country and South Korea reported it was ensuring its troops were prepared for atomic war.  Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.

On 10 October 2006, the world reacted with anger, fear, and disappointment to the North Korean nuclear weapon test. China accused North Korea of a “brazen” violation of its international commitments.  Japan may seek a growing regional security role.  South Korea warned of a nuclear arms build-up in the region.  The United States proposed newer, tougher UN sanctions on North Korea, calling for a ban on all trading in military goods and services and inspections of of all cargo going in and out of North Korea.  At the United Nations, delegations to the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security strongly denounced the test, and called for renewed six-party talks and the strengthening of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

On 9 October 2006, the Korean Central News Agency announced "the field of scientific research in the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, Juche 95 [2006] at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation. It has been confirmed that there was no such danger from radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test, as it was carried out under scientific consideration and careful calculation. The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology, 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA [Korean People’s Army] and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability. It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."

On 4 October 2006, North Korea announced that it plans to conduct an underground nuclear weapon test, prompting warnings from Tokyo to Washignton that it would draw sharp responses and could undermine security in Asia.

On 18 September 2006 Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf claimed in his newly published memoirs that the black market nuclear network operated by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan might have sent advanced nuclear centrifuges to North Korea.

On 18 July 2006 Japan pursues options for further sanctions it can place on North Korea. Initially there was a North Korean trade ferry that was banned from Japanese ports and charter flights from Pyongyang were also halted. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe expressed additional sanctions as including the "start of procedures to ban cash remittances by Koreans living in Japan who are sympathetic towards Kim Jong-il's government - an important source of foreign currency for North Koreans," BBC News reported.

On 15 July 2006 the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1695. The resolution was a diluted version of the Japanese-sponsored text as it remained stern in language but did not include Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. This was done so that it would not be vetoed by China. The report reiterated key points such as "strongly urging the DPRK to return immediately to the Six-Party Talks without precondition, to work towards the expeditious implementation of 19 September 2006 Joint Statement..." as well as (the Council) requiring "all Member States to prevent the transfer of missile and missile-related items, materials, goods and technology to the DPRK's missile or weapons of mass destruction programmes..." North Korea reacted to this event by denouncing the resolution.

On 12 July 2006 an alternate U.N. Security Council resolution is proposed by China and Russia Reuters reports. The change from the Japanse-sponsored resolution included the text "urges, rather than demands, that Pyongang re-establish a moratorium." The U.N. Security Council continues to hold off on voting as the U.S. and Japan are still not content with the Chinese-Russian stance and China, Russia and South Korea continue to state that the language of the Japanese-sponsored resolution is too severe.

On 11 July 2006 BBC News states that diplomatic measures continue as Christopher Hill, American envoy to North Korea, "is holding talks in Beijing, and a high-level North Korean delegation is in Seoul." There are ongoing efforts to reach a consensus between the nations in the six-party talks. The resolution using Chapter Seven of the UN Charter that Japan is advocating for is being criticized by South Korea, Russia and China. The U.S. and Japan however are calling for a stronger statement so that there is some mechanism of enforcement by issuing a legally binding resolution. A vote continues to be postponed by the U.N. Security Council as to whether or not the resolution will be implemented.

On 10 July 2006 discussion continues as to what an appropriate course of action is to respond to North Korea’s launch of seven missiles. The U.N. Security Council will engage in discussion regarding the Japanese resolution proposed to initiate economic sanctions against North Korea. Although this option is being presented it faces opposition from South Korea, China and Russia. These three in particular believe that imposing economic sanctions against Pyongyang would be too severe.

On 5 July 2006 North Korea launched another missile and an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was called following this as well as yesterday's events.

On 4 July 2006 North Korea launched six missiles in total including the anticipated long-range missile Taepodong 2. This missile however failed approximately 40 seconds after launch and landed in the Sea of Japan. In addition to the Taepodong 2 the other missiles launched included mostly Scuds.

On 26 June 2006, according to GSN, a study by the Institute for Science and International Security revealed that it is likely that "since 2001 North Korea has increased its fissile material stockpile more than sixfold since U.S. President George W. Bush entered office. The report indicates that Pyongyang has moved from possessing sufficient plutonium for no more than two nuclear weapons to having enough for up to 13. The study also predicts that it could have material for more than 17 bombs by 2009."

On 18 June 2006 U.S. officials assert their opinion that North Korea has finished fueling a long-range missile with the potential of having a range of up to 2,175 to 2,670 miles (3,500 to 4,300 kilometers). This would mean that the supposed Taepodong-2 missile is projected to be able to reach parts of Alaska. Reuters reported that "The New York Times, quoting American officials, reported on its Web site that booster rockets were loaded onto a launch pad and fuel tanks fitted to a missile. This could not be confirmed, but U.S. and other officials have said satellite images show fuel tanks and key components of a missile positioned at the test site."

On 13 April 2006 the U.S. declared that although Pyongyang had threatened to bolster its nuclear capability the U.S. will not let go of its financial sanctions. This measure stems from the U.S. freezing $24 million of Macau's Banco Delta Asia bank's assets after the accusation of money-laundering to North Korea.

On 13 April 2006 BBC News reported that North Korea proposed going back to multilateral talks on the condition that "the US releases assets frozen in a bank in Macau."

On 6 February 2006 the Sankei Shimbun, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Washington, reported that the United States and North Korea will hold bi-lateral talks late in February to discuss the ongoing dispute over nuclear weapons and financial restrictions. Working level delegates will meet in Washington.

On 6 February 2006 Lee Jong-seok, the South Korean nominee for unification minister, acknowledged the North Korean government as a dictatorship. While the United States, Japan, and the European Union have been outspoken in criticizing North Korea's human rights record, until recently, South Korea has remained quiet on the subject of human rights saying it feels silent diplomacy is the best method.

On 13 December 2005, South Korea and North Korea engaged in regular high-level dialogue, during which “South Korea is expected to make a strong effort to bring North Korea back to the international nuclear dialogue.”

On 11 December 2005, North Korea declared that the six party talks are suspended indefinitely due to the United States’ financial sanctions against the DPRK and the US’ statement that North Korea is a “criminal regime”.

On 7 December 2005, United States Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, announced that economic sanctions imposed on North Korea were a matter of law enforcement, branding North Korea a "criminal regime."

On 6 December 2005, North Korea threatened to boycott further six-party talks unless the US lifts its economic sanctions: "It is impossible to resume the six-party talks under such provocative sanctions applied by the US upon the DPRK," reported Rodong Sinmun, the North's communist party newspaper. AFP reported that "the row over US sanctions imposed on North Korea over alleged money laundering and counterfeiting has emerged as a stumbling block to the six-nation talks." In October, Washington "imposed sanctions on eight North Korean companies it said acted as fronts for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." The fifth round of talks is intended to substantiate the agreement reached in September.

On 2 December 2005, the Associated Press reported China's envoy to Seoul, Ambassador Ning Fukui, said, "'three keys' are needed for the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the most important of which is the establishment of mutual trust between the United States and North Korea. The other two priorities are normalizing relations with Japan and improving relations with South Korea." Ning believes if these three conditions are met, North Korea would seriously consider dismantling its nuclear weapons programme. Meanwhile, AP also reported that "U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said Friday he would not sit still for endless talks with North Korea in an effort to stop its nuclear weapons program." Talks are expected to resume in January.

On 29 November 2005, the North Korean delegation to the North-South military talks issued a statement threatening to cut off inter-military ties with South Korea, accusing the South of allowing U.S. troops to enter border areas controlled by the two Koreas which are used for exchanges and tourism.

On 24 November 2005, IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei updated the Agency's Board on Implementation of Safeguards in DPRK. Please see Director General ElBaradei's introductory statement to the Board of Governors.

On 17 November 2005, President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun declared they would not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea, and affirmed they would push diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute with Pyongyang. In his statement during the annual APEC Summit, President Bush stood firm in his insistence that the United States will not agree to provide assistance to North Korea until it has completely halted its nuclear programme. North Korea's most recent position is that it will not agree to dismantle its programme until the United States provides it with a light-water nuclear reactor. President Bush also reiterated his position during meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao on 19 November 2005.

On 16 November 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice announced that North Korea has not followed through on its commitment to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and needs to approach the next round of six party talks with a different attitude. In response, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan stated: "As we have to follow the 'action-for-action' principle, we will act if action is made, we will never move first.'' North Korea continues to demand aid and other concessions from the United States before it will agree to act on dismantling its nuclear programme.

On 14 November 2005, North Korea announced a 5-point plan, under which it would ultimately dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea's new plan is a result of the most recent round of six party talks on how to implement the statement of principles, agreed on in September.

On 14 November 2005, Australia announced that it would increase aid to the DPRK if it abandons its nuclear weapons programme. Before attending the Asia-Pacific Regional Forum in Busan, Republic of Korea (ROK), Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced that once North Korea has verifiably renounced its nuclear weapons programme, Australia will to commit to providing significant development aid, energy assistance, and nuclear safeguard expertise to assist dismantlement.

On 20 September 2005, twenty-four hours after the agreement was reached, North Korea issued a follow up statement, reiterating its right to peaceful nuclear activities and arguing that it will not give up its nuclear programme until it is given a civilian light-water nuclear reactor, as a measure of good confidence between North Korea and the United States. The US and Japan rejected this "unacceptable" demand. The future of North Korean nuclear disarmament is again in stalemate with neither the US nor the DPRK willing to act first or agree to bilateral talks.

On 19 September 2005, the fourth round of six party talks, held in Beijing, PRC, ended with the member states (DPRK, ROK, USA, Japan, Russia, and China) coming to a formal agreement on providing development aid and energy assistance to North Korea in exchange for abandoning its nuclear programme. The BBC reported that "North Korea agreed to a statement of principle under which it would abandon all nuclear weapons and current nuclear programmes and return to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. In return, Pyongyang was offered electricity and an assurance that the US 'has no intention to attack or invade [North Korea] with nuclear or conventional weapons'."

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