VOA常速英语2007-US Envoy: North Korea's Nuclear Disarmament on T

By Kate Woodsome
Hong Kong
31 October 2007

A team of U.S. experts is preparing to travel to North Korea this week to oversee¹ the shutdown of the country's main nuclear facility. As Kate Woodsome reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong, the chief U.S. diplomat² involved in the nuclear issue says the disarmament process is on track.

The chief U.S. envoy³ to the North Korean nuclear talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, says he does not expect any problems during this phase of the North Korean nuclear deal.

North Korea has agreed to dismantle⁴ its nuclear facilities by the end of the year, in return for food and energy aid and diplomatic concessions⁵ from the United States and the other parties to the nuclear talks.

As part of that deal, U.S. experts are en route to North Korea to oversee the disabling of Pyongyang's main nuclear complex, at Yongbyon.

As he prepared Wednesday to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Kwan, Hill told reporters in Beijing that for the moment, there is nothing left to negotiate.

"We have an understanding of what needs to be done so these are just issues subject to technical matters," said Hill. "We are not in a situation where we want to do more and they want to do less. I think we're beyond that."

But Hill has consistently cautioned that there is a long way to go before North Korea is truly nuclear-free.

International efforts to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions have been ongoing⁶ since 2003. They gained urgency last year, after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear weapons test.

The U.S. inspection⁷ team is expected to travel to North Korea Thursday to oversee what may be the real start of the disarmament process. It will be the team's second trip this month.

North Korea has already switched off the Yongbyon reactor⁸, and the aim now is to make it very difficult to restart it. In return for the shutdown, Pyongyang received 100,000 tons of oil.

In all, North Korea has been promised another 900,000 tons of oil, or equivalent aid, if it upholds its disarmament commitments.

Hill says he also will meet with Chinese and Russia officials while in Beijing. China, Russia, South Korea and Japan are the other parties to the nuclear talks.

1 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

2 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

3 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

4 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

5 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

6 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

7 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

8 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。