VOA常速英语2007-US Endorses Plan For Disabling North Korean Nucl

By David Gollust
State Department
02 October 2007

The United States said Tuesday it has approved a draft six-nation accord under which North Korea will declare and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year in exchange for aid and diplomatic benefits. China is expected to release the document within the next day or two. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

U.S. officials say the latest round of six-party talks, which ended Sunday in Beijing, was not originally intended to produce a document.

But they say that so much progress was made in the three-day session that host China proposed and drafted the statement, which has been referred to the various governments for final approval.

Officials here decline to elaborate on its contents other than to say that it will commit North Korea to disabling its nuclear facilities and declaring all its nuclear holdings including weapons by the end of the year.

The other parties to the talks, Japan, South Korea and Russia, along with the United States and China, will in turn define benefits that would go to North Korea because of its cooperation.

The chief U.S. delegate to the six-party talks, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Christopher Hill, briefed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the document in New York Monday.

Rice, in turn met with President Bush at the White House Tuesday morning, and China was notified of the Bush administration's approval of the draft.

North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor² at Yongbyon, the source of plutonium for its small arsenal³ of nuclear weapons, in July in return for initial deliveries of an eventual⁴ one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid.

North Korea froze operations at the reactor under a 1994 deal with the Clinton administration that later fell apart. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack says its commitment now to permanently⁵ disable the site is unprecedented⁶ in all the years of Korean nuclear diplomacy⁷:

"Disabling the Yongbyon facility and a full declaration of North Korea's nuclear program: that's new, that's path-breaking," said Sean McCormack. "And we'll see, between now and the end of the year, if we can achieve that. And if the North Koreans meet the conditions that have been laid out for them by the other parties, then they are going to receive some benefits for that changed behavior."

North Korea's envoy⁸ to the nuclear talks, Vice⁹ Foreign Minister Kim Kye-Gwan, says one benefit stipulated¹⁰ in the accord is the removal of Pyongyang, by a date certain, from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In a talk with reporters in New York, Assistant Secretary Hill declined to confirm that such a commitment is included, but he said it has been an issue of active discussion between the two governments:

"Obviously, it's an issue of great concern to them," said Christopher Hill. "They would very much like to be off that list. From our point of view, anytime we can work with a country to get them off this list, and that is to remove a country as a threat or as a country that we have concerns about insofar as it can be a state sponsor of terrorism, that's something that we always want to do. To be sure this is an issue in our process and obviously we are working with the DPRK [North Korea] on this."

U.S. officials say there is no evidence of North Korean involvement in terrorism since the mid-1980's.

Japan has opposed removing North Korea from the terrorism list because of still-unresolved cases of alleged¹¹ North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens from the same era.

News reports from Tokyo say Japan has accepted the new six-party statement, but with deep reservations.

Hill said if, as expected, the statement is approved by the all the parties, the process of disabling the nuclear sites could get under way in a matter of weeks, and that the United States would be heavily involved on the ground in North Korea.

The U.S. diplomat¹ said once that process is complete and North Korea accounts for an estimated 50 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium and a secrecy-shrouded uranium enrichment effort, the end-stage of the six-party process can proceed in 2008.

That would include the surrender and disposal of the nuclear materials, and delivery of diplomatic benefits for Pyongyang including normalized relations with the United States and Japan and an agreement formally ending the 1950's Korean war.

Hill cautioned the remaining process will not be easy but said if it is successful, the situation in northeast Asia will be transformed for the better.

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

4 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

5 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

8 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 stipulated   

vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的

参考例句：

• A delivery date is stipulated in the contract. 合同中规定了交货日期。
• Yes, I think that's what we stipulated. 对呀，我想那是我们所订定的。 来自辞典例句

11 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为