North Korea Must Accept South’s Reactors, U.S. Says

The Clinton Administration confirmed Tuesday that North Korea has balked at accepting South Korean-designed reactors as part of the deal to stop its nuclear weapons program but said that the Pyongyang government can have the South Korean reactors or none at all.

“Our position remains . . . that the South Korean model is the only option for this project,” State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said.

She said the United States is confident that the dispute can be resolved when talks resume in March.

For reasons of national pride, North Korea is reluctant to accept reactors built by its southern rival, preferring equipment from the United States or Japan. U.S. officials were taken by surprise last week when North Korea refused to accept a draft contract. They had assumed that the Pyongyang regime realized it had no alternative.

North Korea also recently asked the United States for millions of dollars in additional equipment to be supplied along with the new reactors, a State Department official confirmed Tuesday night.

North Korean officials “asked us for a number of extra things,” the official said. “Some of these things are clearly out of bounds, and some probably are not. . . . They have a shopping list. What they get is another matter.”

Among the additional items North Korea requested was a fuel-fabrication plant, which U.S. officials said would cost many millions of dollars. North Korea also asked for power-transmission lines that are worth millions of dollars. And it requested new simulators, valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, to train the personnel who will operate the nuclear reactors.

North Korea agreed last October to close down two Soviet-designed graphite reactors in exchange for Western-style light-water reactors. The light-water reactors produce more electricity but generate much less plutonium that could be diverted for arms use.

Japan, South Korea and the United States have agreed to divide the $4-billion cost of the deal, although the exact share each will pay has not been worked out. However, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that Japan and South Korea would shoulder “the lion’s share” of the costs, leaving Washington with about $30 million.

But U.S. officials said that South Korea’s participation is dependent on getting the contract to supply the reactors. And without South Korea, the financing would fall apart.

Times staff writer Jim Mann contributed to this story.