North Korea has received the equivalent of about $2.2 billion under deals aimed at persuading the isolated nation to dismantle its nuclear facilities, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, in what his office says is the first accounting of the cost of the failed strategy.
The U.S. promised the North two light-water reactors that would produce nuclear power under a 1994 deal to freeze its atomic program, which Washington and its allies feared was meant to create weapons not energy. Until the reactors were built, the powers agreed to furnish the impoverished North with an annual supply of 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.
When the U.S. accused North Korea in 2002 of restarting its atomic program, the deal was scrapped and Pyongyang expelled nuclear inspectors.
But before that, the equivalent of nearly $2 billion flowed into North Korea, ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se said in a statement. South Korea spent $1.15 billion, Japan $410 million and the EU $18 million on the reactors. Meanwhile, the U.S. sent $400 million worth of fuel oil to the North.
In 2007, however, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. tried again, promising the North 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions in return for disablement. So far, 745,000 tons of oil — estimated to be worth $310 million — have been shipped to the North under the new deal, the statement said.
But the disablement process came to halt again last year as Pyongyang wrangled with Washington over how to verify its account of past atomic activities. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting the North this week, and many are watching the trip for signs that he will persuade Pyongyang to return to disarmament talks.
Kwon expressed frustration with the deals, which have lavished aid and support on the North without succeeding in getting the regime to retire its nuclear ambitions.
"The key strategy in the North's nuclear disarmament process is to yield an agreement that North Korea cannot reverse," Kwon said in the statement.
Kwon's office said they calculated the figures based on data submitted by the South Korean Foreign Ministry. Ministry officials confirmed the figures on the 1994 deal, but said that they only gave the amount of fuel oil sent to the North under the 2007 deals as it was hard to figure out their exact price due to fluctuating oil prices at the time.
In addition to the money it was given in the disarmament-for-aid deals, the North has also received nearly 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) of food, fertilizer and other humanitarian aid from the U.S., South Korea and international organizations over the past 10 years, Kwon's office said.
