MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2018) The start of a peaceful nuclear power program in North Korea is unrelated to its progress in denuclearization and may be organized in the nearest future given a secure fuel supply, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA) Director-General William D. Magwood, IV, told Sputnik in an interview.
On June 12, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore, where they reached an agreement stipulating that North Korea would work toward "a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in exchange for a freeze of the US-South Korean military drills and potential sanctions relief. No concrete time frame was announced for achieving these goals.
"From the technical standpoint, there is really no connection between a weapons programme [denuclearization] and a peaceful [nuclear energy] programme. The peaceful programme can be started very quickly; its just a matter of establishing a secure fuel supply, which for most countries can be done through imports of enriched uranium so they do not have to worry about enriching their own uranium and can build commercial facilities that can use fabricated fuel," Magwood said, asked how long would it take for Pyongyang to complete denuclearization and switch to a peaceful use of nuclear power.
He added that civilian use of nuclear power also depended on policy as well as security agreements.
"Its really just a matter of having the right policy and security frameworks, and if you have those, then you can proceed with a civilian [nuclear power] programme," the OECD-NEA head said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to North Korea next week along with new Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun to continue diplomatic work toward denuclearization.
