N. Korea accuses US of being slow to fulfill aid-for-disarmament deal

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea on Friday accused the US and its other nuclear negotiating partners of being too slow to award fuel oil and political benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal. The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement it has disabled 80 percent of its main nuclear complex, but countries involved in six-nation disarmament talks have only shipped 40 percent of energy shipments promised to the North. The energy-starved North was promised the aid equivalent of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil under the February 2007 deal with China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States. The ministry statement said North Korea has shown its resolve to disarm by destroying a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex - a measure it says was required under the denuclearization agreement.