U.S., Allies Prepare Solution to N. Korea Nuclear Dispute

The United States and its allies are writing a detailed draft document of what they hope will be a comprehensive agreement under which North Korea would dismantle its nuclear program in return for guarantees that it is not about to be invaded, according to reports out of South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s deputy foreign minister, Lee Soo Hyuck, confirmed Thursday that a written document was being prepared with the hope it could be fine-tuned and presented to North Korea by mid-December. Other officials have said that six-party talks are tentatively planned for Dec. 17-19 in Beijing.

Reports in the Japanese media described several intriguing aspects of what would be a multinational approach that would involve North Korea’s largest neighbors as well as the world’s declared nuclear powers.

The parties to the talks -- the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia -- would offer North Korea a written security guarantee that it is not a target for invasion. The actual dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear program would be overseen by another international team of experts from the nuclear bomb-possessing countries -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France.

Moon Chung In, a South Korean academic and occasional foreign police advisor, said the idea was loosely modeled after an agreement signed with Ukraine in the mid-1990s under which the former Soviet republic eliminated its nuclear weapons in return for recognition of its independence and territory.

“The Ukrainian model contains a lot of the same elements that North Korea has been asked for from the United States. Although the North Koreans are calling for a bilateral treaty with the United States, this would be a multilateral guarantee,” Moon said.

The last round of six-party talks held in August in Beijing ended in disappointment. The North Koreans, supported to some extent by the Chinese, were critical of the United States for failing to put on the table a specific proposal for ending the nuclear crisis.

Lee, the South Korean deputy foreign minister, said Thursday that there must be a “documented outcome” to the next round of talks.

He said the draft had been agreed on by the United States, South Korea and Japan and would be presented to the Chinese for their approval.

Japan’s Kyodo News Service and the leading daily newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported further details of the proposal.

In addition to North Korea’s elimination of nuclear weapons, the admission of international inspectors into the country and the issuing of a five-party security guarantee to North Korea, the proposal would call for an agreement to resolve outstanding issues such as the kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Korea and the testing of long-range missiles.

There would also be a pledge by all parties to avoid moves that would aggravate tensions in the region.