North Korea plan based on "Libya model" - NY Times
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The proposal being negotiated in Beijing for ending North Korea's nuclear programme would include agreement to turn over all equipment it bought from a disgraced Pakistani scientist, the New York Times reported. "This is the Libya model," the Times quoted a senior administration official as saying, referring to Libya's decision in late 2003 to turn over all of the equipment it had purchased from the secret nuclear network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, to produce fuel for a nuclear bomb. In that agreement, both the Libyans and the United States executed a series of steps, in a carefully negotiated order, that rid the country of nuclear technology and ended its isolation, it said. Khan, under house arrest in Pakistan, has admitted selling nuclear parts and secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea in early 2004. The newspaper reported that White House and State Department officials were preparing for a major announcement over the weekend. In Beijing, chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill, said one issue remained in dispute. The United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas have held three days of talks to work through the proposal for Pyongyang to halt its nuclear ambitions, after three years of on and off negotiations. The New York Times reported administration officials said a second part of the agreement would require North Korea to declare the amount and location of its nuclear material. Benefits for North Korea would come after it agrees to allow inspections, seals its nuclear facilities, and begins to give up weapons, the paper said.
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