VOA常速英语2007年-North Korea Breaks End-of-Year Nuclear Declarat

By Kurt Achin
Seoul
31 December 2007

The United States and Japan are expressing regret that North Korea is breaking a key promise aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.  2007 is coming to an end with no declaration from North Korea listing its nuclear activities.  VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul.

The U.S. State Department says it is "unfortunate that North Korea has not yet met its commitments" in six-nation diplomacy¹ aimed at getting rid of its nuclear weapons.  Japan's Foreign Ministry² issued a statement Monday using similar language.

Pyongyang had promised the United States, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea it would provide a full and accurate declaration of all its nuclear programs, stockpiles and weapons by the end of the year.  However, the North remained silent as the final hours of 2007 ticked away. 

Experts say the delaying is linked to North Korea's uranium enrichment activities. Senior U.S. officials say there is considerable evidence, including a private admission by Pyongyang, that North Korea broke previous commitments by secretly enriching uranium.  North Korea has never publicly admitted doing so. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said this week more consultations³ are needed on the uranium issue.  He says the timing⁴ of the declaration is not as important as the sincerity⁵ of its contents.

In an appeal for patience, Song says the Korean peninsula is on a path it has never been on before.  What is important, he says, is to move ahead in a stable way.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Washington's senior envoy⁶ in the nuclear diplomacy, says it would be unhelpful for the declaration to be on time if it was incomplete.

"We cannot put ourselves in the position of trying to ignore things," Hill said. "We have to have clarity on all these programs."

North Korea has made progress on pledges to disable facilities capable of producing plutonium, including its main production facility at Yongbyon.  Supervised by U.S. experts, North Korea has taken steps to make it costly⁷ and time-consuming to restart the facilities, and has promised to begin dismantling⁸ them altogether next year.  As compensation, the United States and South Korea are giving the North the energy equivalent of about one million tons of fuel oil.

However, this week a senior North Korean official warned the pace of the disabling process would slow down, because Pyongyang believes the energy compensation is not being delivered in a timely manner.  Experts say technical issues are probably the real reason for the delay.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Tom Casey says Washington urges North Korea to deliver a complete and correct declaration.  There has been no indication of when North Korea might provide the required documents.

1 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 consultations   

n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找

参考例句：

• Consultations can be arranged at other times by appointment. 磋商可以通过预约安排在其他时间。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Consultations are under way. 正在进行磋商。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

5 sincerity   

n.真诚，诚意；真实

参考例句：

• His sincerity added much more authority to the story.他的真诚更增加了故事的说服力。
• He tried hard to satisfy me of his sincerity.他竭力让我了解他的诚意。

6 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。

7 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

8 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。