The following are key events surrounding the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue since October last year:
KEY EVENTS IN 2007
Oct. 3, a joint document on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, named the Second-Phase Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement, was released at the second session of the sixth round of the six-party talks.
According to the document, the DPRK agreed to disable all its existing nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007and the United States would fulfill its commitments to the DPRK in parallel with the DPRK's actions.
Nov. 1, U.S. experts arrived in the DPRK to take part in the disablement work of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
Dec. 3-5, chief U.S. negotiator to the six-party talks Christopher Hill visited the DPRK to inspect the developments of the disablement of the nuclear facilities and discussed with DPRK officials the declaration of its nuclear programs. Hill handed a letter from U.S. President George W. Bush to DPRK top leader Kim Yong Il, in which Bush said the normalization of bilateral ties was the final goal.
KEY EVENTS IN 2008
Jan. 4, the DPRK made a statement about its implementation of the October joint document, saying relevant parties such as the United States failed to fulfill their obligations under the agreements and the DPRK was not to blame for the delay of the fulfillment of the joint document. The United States said afterwards that the DPRK failed to submit its nuclear declaration and said it would not remove the DPRK from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and halt penalizing it under the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act before the DPRK makes a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear programs.
March 13, chief U.S. and DPRK negotiators to the six-party talks held talks in Geneva but failed to reach a consensus on such concrete issues as the declaration of DPRK's nuclear programs.
April 8, chief U.S. and DPRK top negotiators to the six-party talks met in Singapore and reached a consensus on key issues in the fulfillment of the October joint document.
April 22-24, a team of U.S. nuclear experts visited Pyongyang and discussed with DPRK officials concrete issues concerning the fulfillment of the joint document, including the contents of the nuclear declaration.
May 8, the U.S. team of nuclear specialists visited Pyongyang for the second time. The DPRK side handed over key documents on the operations of its nuclear facilities to the team, totaling 18,000 pages.
June 10, the specialist team paid the third visit to Pyongyang and discussed technical and other issues on dismantling the nuclear facilities and political and economical compensation of relevant parties for the DPRK for the nuclear disablement. Pyongyang said the negotiations bore fruits.
June 11, the expert panel on economic and energy cooperation of the six-party talks held a meeting in Panmunjom. The experts exchanged views on providing economic and energy aid to the DPRK by relevant parties and reached a consensus on accelerating the speed in assistance.
June 11-12, the DPRK and Japan held inter-governmental talks in Beijing. According to an agreement reached by the two sides, the DPRK would re-investigate the issue of past abduction of Japanese nationals, and Japan would partially lift economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
June 18, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that following Pyongyang's declaration, Washington would remove the DPRK from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and stop penalizing it under the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act. June 25, the U.S. reiterated that it would remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if Pyongyang makes a full declaration of its nuclear programs.
Source: Xinhua
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