N. Korea said in Tokyo it will shift energy policy to nuclear power

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said at an academic conference held in mid-April in Tokyo that Pyongyang will shift its basic energy policy from coal and hydroelectric power generation to nuclear energy, conference sources said Saturday.

 

Kim, North Korea's chief delegate to the stalled six-party nuclear talks, said at the international conference on Northeast Asian security that there is "no future without nuclear energy," the sources said.

North Korea has said in past six-party talks, also involving the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, that it will use nuclear power for peaceful purposes but it is the first time for it to indicate a change in its basic energy policy.

The move is believed to be aimed at soliciting support from countries concerned in terms of the North's assertion of its peaceful use of nuclear power and demand that it be provided with light-water nuclear reactors.

Even if the multilateral nuclear talks -- last held in November in Beijing -- are resumed, North Korea is expected to stick to its position of refusing to give up all of its nuclear programs, using its energy policy change as leverage.

North Korea has refused to return to the negotiating table for the six-way talks unless the United States lifts its financial sanctions against a Macao-based bank suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for the North.

Washington says the sanctions are a law enforcement matter unrelated to the talks and has called for North Korea to return unconditionally to the nuclear talks.

According to the sources, Kim said in a speech at the academic conference on April 9, "Our country's energy policy was centered on coal, but coal is being depleted. There is also a limit to hydropower resources and there is currently no oil."

He said North Korea's basic energy policy now is nuclear energy, and added that there is "no method" for energy supply as well as "no future" without it, the sources said.

Kim reiterated North Korea's demand for light-water nuclear reactors in exchange for nuclear abandonment and noted that American people could be involved in operating such reactors if necessary.

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