Koreas, China in talks on energy aid to Pyongyang

Buoyed by reports of progress in the latest nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States, senior diplomats from the two Koreas and China resumed talks Thursday on supplying energy-related equipment to the North under a six-way deal signed last year.

The one-day meeting at the South Korean embassy in Beijing, the third of its kind, is to discuss details on ways of providing the communist nation with energy-related equipment and materials, officials said.
North Korea signed a deal with its dialogue partners in the six-way nuclear talks — South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan — to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for 450,000 tons of heavy oil and energy facilities equivalent to 500,000 tons of heavy oil, plus political incentives.

South Korea chairs a working group on the energy aid. About 30 percent of the total fuel and facilities has been shipped to the North so far in return for its ongoing work to disable the plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon.

Hankyoreh