"Verification (of the DPRK nuclear declaration) is the most important thing," chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters Tuesday after talks with his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye Gwan in Beijing, "We want to speed up the rate of disablement."

The 60-page account, handed over to the talks chair China, listed DPRK's plutonium-related nuclear programs and materials. The United States expected to verify the DPRK declaration through short-notice inspections, site visits and even interviews of DPRK scientists.

Action for action

The DPRK demonstrated its stand in a Foreign Ministry statement. "The DPRK is ready to cooperate in verifying the nuclear declaration but is maintaining the basic principle that the principle of 'action for action' should be observed," said an unnamed spokesman Friday.

"The DPRK took the measure of completely blowing up the cooling tower of the pilot atomic power plant, in particular, going beyond the phase of disablement," which "constitutes a step taken out of goodwill, a proof of the DPRK's will for the denuclearization," he said.

He urged the United States and other parties of the nuclear talks to fulfill their commitments, for "the disablement of the nuclear facilities in the DPRK has been done more than 80 percent, " while "economic compensation have been fulfilled just 40 percent as of now."

From the DPRK's point of view, only when the economic assistance were all in place and political compensation really took effect, will it meet its disablement promise and enter the third phase, the abandonment phase.

Lack of confidence

The DPRK underlining repeatedly the principle of "action for action" reflected lack of confidence between Pyongyang and Washington.

It has insisted that developing "nuclear deterrent" was its reaction to the anti-DPRK policy of the United States, which named it one of the axes of evils, and the denuclearization should go along with the U.S. dropping its hostile policy against the DPRK.

Minju Joson, an official newspaper in Pyongyang, carried an editorial on the 58th anniversary of the Korean War on June 25, saying the DPRK would remain vigilant on "peace" and "dialogue" advocated by Washington.

In a similar tone, U.S. president George W. Bush said that he has "no illusion" on the DPRK after Pyongyang turned over its nuclear declaration.

"We are not going to take the word of the North Koreans based on what they put on a piece of paper," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, warning that if the DPRK didn't comply with the disclosure commitment it made in 2005, Washington would reverse the sanction-lifting procedure.

Prospect

After suffering countless setbacks and delays, the six-party talks resumed with the ending of the disablement phase eventually in sight.

Tough negotiations are expected as delegates from the six nations have to make painstaking efforts to map out a verification mechanism.

The DPRK is likely to play its cards by gauging what the other parties could offer.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)