S. Korean envoy fetches no immediate breakthrough from N. Korea

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's deputy chief nuclear envoy said Tuesday
his rare discussions with North Korean officials in Pyongyang were confined to
technical aspects, and that he was limited in whom he could meet.
Hwang Joon-kook said he was not allowed to visit the North's foreign ministry or
meet its chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. He had planned to deliver
Seoul's position on the stalled nuclear talks and inter-Korean relations if he
had a chance to meet higher-ranking North Korean officials.
"We looked around the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon that are being disabled,"
Hwang, head of the South Korean foreign ministry's North Korean nuclear issue
bureau, told reporters, briefing them on the results of his five-day trip to
North Korea. He was accompanied by three South Korean civilian nuclear experts to
scrutinize the condition of 14,800 unused fuel rods, which are equivalent to 100
tons of uranium.
North Korea apparently wants South Korea to purchase the roughly 15-year-old rods.
"The North Korean side was very cooperative on related consultations," he said.
Hwang said he was briefed in detail on Pyongyang's disablement and its stance on
denuclearization by Hyon Hak-bong, deputy chief of the U.S. affairs bureau at the
North's foreign ministry.
"I detected no big difference from North Korea's existing position," he said.
North Korea's military spokesman on Saturday stoked tension, warning that his
country is "compelled to take an all-out confrontational posture to shatter"
South Korea's Lee Myung-back government that "opted for confrontation."
lcd@yna.co.kr
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