nuclear-news

USA-North Korea – food in exchange for nuclear shutdown?

North Korea says US offered food for nuclear shutdown, Business Recorder, JANUARY 12, 2012    North Korea said Wednesday that the United States had offered food aid and a suspension of sanctions if it halted its uranium enrichment programme.

The comments by a foreign ministry spokesman to Pyongyang’s official news agency were the first by the North on the issue.

Before the sudden death of the North’s leader Kim Jong-Il on December 17, there were several media reports that such an agreement was imminent.

At talks in July last year, Washington “proposed to take confidence-building steps such as suspension of sanctions, as well as food aid” in return for a “temporary suspension” of uranium enrichment, the North’s spokesman said.

Experts say the uranium programme disclosed in November 2010 could give the communist state a second way to make nuclear weapons. The disclosure spurred efforts to revive stalled six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations. http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/single/599/172/1141775/

January 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international