One of the most visible parts of North Korea's nuclear program, the Yongbyo...
HANOI - One of the most visible parts of North Korea’s nuclear program, the Yongbyon reactor complex is a central point of contention for diplomats trying to resurrect a deal after U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un’s Vietnam summit ended without agreement.
U.S. negotiators confirmed North Korea had made the offer, but said talks broke down over exactly which facilities were included, and the scope of sanctions relief that Pyongyang demanded in return. North Korea promised to disable Yongbyon as part of a 2005 disarmament-for-aid deal that emerged from so-called six-party talks, involving the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas.
Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist who previously headed the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in the United States, said North Korea told him they had 2,000 centrifuges, to produce weapons-grade uranium to build bombs, in operation during his visit to Yongbyon in 2010. One South Korean official said dismantling Yongbyon would take a comprehensive plan involving a declaration of arms and facilities, samplings of fissile materials and equipment, and ad hoc inspections by outside experts.
Neither U.S. or North Korean officials identified the extra areas that Washington was seeking as part of the summit talks, but in a news conference after ending the talks on Thursday Trump said he had raised the issue of facilities beyond Yongbyon.
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