DPRK (North Korea)
Expected Council Action
The Sanctions Committee on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRK, or North Korea) will give its second briefing to the Council in April. Resolution 1718, which in October expressed grave concern over North Korea’s nuclear test and set up the Sanctions Committee, requires a report every ninety days.
No Council action is expected unless there is a major setback in the six-party talks such as failure by North Korea to meet the mid-April deadline for shutting down its Yongbyon reactor.
Key Recent Developments
In February the six-party talks among the US, Russia, South Korea and North Korea produced a breakthrough. On 13 February Pyongyang agreed to close its Yongbyon reactor within sixty days, in return for 50,000 tons of fuel aid or equivalent economic aid. It also agreed to discuss with the other parties a list of its nuclear programmes.
Working groups were set up under the February agreement to consider denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, normalisation of DPRK-US relations, normalisation of DPRK-Japan relations, economic and energy cooperation and a Northeast Asia peace and security mechanism. The US and Japan working groups began bilateral discussions. In March the US/North Korean talks resolved outstanding issues relating to DPRK funds frozen in a Macau bank. The Japan-DPRK discussions on the question of abducted Japanese nationals made no progress.
IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei visited North Korea on 13 March to discuss the return of inspectors (expelled by North Korea in 2002) and monitoring of the shut-down of the Yongbyon reactor.
The sixth round of six-party talks on 19 March in Beijing reviewed progress made in the working groups and next steps.
All UN member states were required by resolution 1718 to report to the Council by 14 November on implementation of the resolution. By mid-March only about seventy countries and the EU had reported. While the Sanctions Committee was able to speedily adopt lists of prohibited trade items in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, work on negotiating standard guidelines for the conduct of its work has been delayed. At this point, no Council member state has proposed that any entities or individuals be designated for targeted sanctions.
Options
The most likely option is that the Council will be briefed by the Sanctions Committee chairman, Ambassador Marcello Spatafora of Italy, and take no further action.
Key Issues
The only practical issue for the Council at this stage is how the Sanctions Committee should carry forward its mandate without jeopardising progress of the six-party talks.
But a key issue on the minds of members will be whether North Korea will fulfil its commitments to shutdown the reactor.
Council and Wider Dynamics
China and the US are working together on this issue in the Council and appear to have similar goals for the six-party talks.
The Sanctions Committee has met regularly since October. While members agree on the need to carry out its mandate, some have felt a special need for caution over the last few months to avoid any risk of jeopardising the six-party talks which were at a very delicate stage. This led to unusually protracted discussions on the Committee’s guidelines and other matters. It is likely this dynamic will influence Committee deliberations through April.
Underlying Problems
The World Food Programme said that 37 percent of children under age six and one-third of women are malnourished. South Korea is resuming fertiliser shipments that may help curb food shortages in 2008, but the drop in foreign aid last year makes starvation in the north a concern. The suspension of UNDP projects, after criticism of the organisation for making payments to DPRK in hard currency and hiring government officials, may have an impact on various projects covering economic and social development, environment and food management.
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Press Statement on the Fifth Round of the Six-Party Talks, 13 February 2007
