Envoy to visit N.K. to negotiate nuclear fuel rod purchasing

A senior South Korean nuclear envoy will visit North Korea tomorrow to discuss Seoul`s purchase of fresh fuel rods stored at the North`s main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The purchase would be one option for disposing of North Korea`s unused fuel rods, the last of 11 steps for disabling the atomic complex. Seoul offered in 2007 to purchase them for use in local nuclear power reactors.

"Hwang Joon-kook, director general of the ministry`s North Korean nuclear affairs bureau, will lead a fact-finding mission to Pyongyang and Yongbyon to examine the condition of the fuel rods," the ministry said.

The visit comes amid a stalemate in the six-way talks aimed at ending North Korea`s nuclear program and a freeze in inter-Korean ties.

"The fact-finding team will study economic and technical feasibility of the fresh fuel rods," a ministry source said.

<**1>





"If the price is too expensive, we will not able to buy the fuel rods. We have to take into account that conservatives here may protest the purchase plan," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The fresh fuel rods would be reprocessed in the South before being used for civilian nuclear reactors, the source said.

During the visit, Hwang will meet Ri Gun, North Korea`s deputy nuclear envoy, sources said. He may also pay courtesy call on the North`s top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan.

The date of his return to Seoul has not been set, the source added.

In a 2007 six-nation denuclearization deal, North Korea agreed to disable its Yongbyon nuclear complex in return for economic and energy aid equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil.

North Korea has so far completed eight of the 11 disablement steps. The remaining three include extracting spent fuel rods from the nuclear reactor, taking the unused fuel rods out of the North, and removing the driving gear of the control rod.

So far, 3,200 of the 8,000 spent fuel rods have been extracted and stored in water tanks. Used fuel rods can be used to obtain weapons-grade plutonium. The control rod can be disabled once all the used fuel rods have been removed.

North Korea reportedly has some 2,000 fresh fuel rods.

By Jin Dae-woong



(davidpooh@heraldm.com)