PYONGYANG, September 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The North Korean nuclear bugaboo has not been exorcised yet as Pyongyang vowed Tuesday, September 20, not to give up its nuclear weapons until the United States provides civilian atomic reactors first, significantly undermining a deal reached just a day earlier.

"The US should not even dream of the issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing Light Water Reactors," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by Reuters.

"This is our just and consistent stand as solid as a deeply rooted rock."

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China expressed a willingness in Monday's agreement to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees in return for the North ditching its nuclear weapons programs. The timing was left vague.

Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalize ties with the impoverished and diplomatically isolated North Korea, which also pledged to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The US State Department said the North's views, set out in a lengthy Foreign Ministry statement, did not match up to the deal it signed at six-country talks in Beijing.

"This was obviously not the agreement they signed and we will see what the coming weeks bring," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

After the deal was agreed to, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called it an important step forward but warned of problems ahead.

"The proof, so to speak, is going to be in the pudding," said Rice at a news conference at the United Nations, where she has been attending the UN General Assembly and holding a host of bilateral meetings.

At the talks, Washington had eased its staunch opposition to any nuclear reactor for North Korea, and indicated it was willing to consider a light-water reactor to produce electricity under certain stringent circumstances.

The US State Department said the offer of nuclear energy hinged on Pyongyang dismantling all its nuclear activities.

The United States, backed by Japan, had argued North Korea could not be trusted with atomic energy, but China, South Korea and Russia said if Pyongyang scrapped its nuclear weapons and agreed to strict safeguards, it should have such an energy program in the future.

"North's demand was unacceptable," said Sasae. (Reuters)

While official reaction had been upbeat, skeptics had said the deal was long on words, vague on timing and sequencing and short on action: the North's comments made clear just how short.

"North Korea has made agreements in the past and broken them, but we have to take everything step by step," AFP quoted as saying Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.

Analysts saw a typical pattern to the North's statement.

"They want people to give them things," said Daniel Pinkston of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the United States.

"The agreement looks good on paper but the same problems remain with commitment, sequencing and verification."

Asian countries also cautioned Tuesday that the joint agreement was by no means a done deal.

"Full of historical and current contradictions, the road ahead is by no means smooth," warned the China Daily.

South Korea's Joongang said the future rested on how faithfully the countries involved observed the terms of the agreement.

The North has in the past set seemingly impossible conditions only to backtrack or give ground later, so its statement is not necessarily the last word.

But it posed a threat to a deal which less than 24 hours earlier delegates gave a standing ovation.

Failure to reach a deal could have prompted Washington to go to the UN Security Council to seek sanctions. North Korea says sanctions would be tantamount to war.

“Advanced, Strong”

But experts say North Korea's demand for light-water nuclear reactors is an expensive bargaining chip that will not help it solve its chronic energy problems soon.

"Light-water reactors do not make sense economically for North Korea," Pinkston said. "The symbolism matters. Having this advanced technology is reflective of a country that is advanced and strong."

Experts further say it would take far longer and be more costly to build light-water reactors in North Korea than it would be to implement South Korea's plan to supply the North with electricity roughly equal to its output.

"Having this advanced technology is reflective of a country that is advanced and strong," said Pinkston.

As part of a proposal to end North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, South Korea, which has 20 nuclear reactors, has proposed supplying it with 2,000 megawatts of power on condition that Pyongyang dismantles its programs.

"Even if North Korea has nuclear power plants, the current antiquated power grid there cannot handle the capacity," Kim Kyoung-sool, an economist specializing in North Korea's energy policies at the South's Korea Energy Economics Institute, told Reuters.

North Korea's grid is a shambles. Large parts of it were built during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule, Kim said.

North Korea's electricity output is estimated to be slightly more than 2,000 megawatts; not enough to light the country at night as satellite pictures vividly illustrate.

Light-water reactors are considered far more proliferation-resistant than the technology North Korea has for its nuclear program, which produces plenty of weapons-grade plutonium but virtually no electricity for civilian use.

As part of a 1994 deal, an international consortium began to build two light-water reactors for North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang freezing its nuclear weapons program.

The manager of the project said 34.5 percent of construction had been completed before it was suspended after Washington accused Pyongyang of violating the deal by pursuing a clandestine plan to develop weapons based on highly enriched uranium.

The North said in February it had nuclear weapons.

It typically takes nine years or more and costs about $2 billion to $3 billion on average to build a modern nuclear power plant with a standard capacity of about 1,000 megawatts.