VOA标准英语2009-Russia Offers Use of Territory for North Korean

Russia is a member of the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. It has often sided with China to prevent tough U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.
　
Unused nuclear fuel rods are piled on shelves of warehouse¹ at North Korea's main nuclear plant in Yongbyon (Jan 2009 S. Korean handout² photo)

The six-party talks began in August, 2003 as a forum³ focusing on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. It brings together representatives from the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

Jim Walsh, a North Korea and nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says Pyongyang has the reactor⁴ needed to produce nuclear material.

"In order to build nuclear weapons, you need one of two materials. You need either highly-enriched uranium or plutonium - these are two different paths to the bomb. In the case of Iran, for example, the concern is that Iran will use its centrifuges to enrich uranium and use that highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapons program," he said. "North Korea, by contrast, has gone the re-processing route. It has this smallish research reactor - Yongbyon - and then it takes the waste product that is produced by that reactor and in that waste is plutonium. And it extracts that plutonium through a process called re-processing and then takes that plutonium to build nuclear weapons."

North Korea's nuclear ambitions continue to heighten tensions
　
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and N. Korean vice⁵ FM Kung Sok Ung, in Pyongyang, 23 Apr 2009

Analysts⁶ say it is difficult to know how many nuclear weapons Pyongyang possesses - estimates vary from six to 12.

During the first several years of the six-party talks, little progress was made in curbing⁷ Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions. But in 2007, an agreement was reached in which North Korea agreed to dismantle⁸ its nuclear weapons program and shut down the Yongbyon reactor. In return, the United States and others promised to help North Korea economically and the U.S. State Department took Pyongyang off the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

However toward the end of the Bush administration, negotiations⁹ ground to a halt, as North Korea refused to agree on specific verification measures of its nuclear activities.

Tensions heightened last month, April 5, when North Korea launched a long range ballistic missile. Western officials described the test as a failure, but Pyongyang called it a success, saying the rocket launched a communications satellite into orbit.

That test launch brought about international condemnation¹⁰. Pyongyang reacted swiftly by saying it would conduct an underground nuclear test and begin reprocessing plutonium from its Yongbyon nuclear facility. And North Korea also withdrew from the six-party talks.

Diplomats¹¹ discuss Russia's role in six-party talks
　
Sergei Lavrov talks to reporters at UN headquarters, 11 May 2009

Late last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov travelled to South and North Korea and confirmed that Pyongyang has no intention of returning to the six-party talks.

Many analysts say Russia's role in the talks process has been minimal¹², confined to threatening - along with China - to veto any United Nations resolution applying strong sanctions against Pyongyang.

"Russia has sort of sat this one out. It has participated in the talks and been there, but claims, and I think with some legitimacy¹³, not to have a great deal of influence in North Korea, not to even understand it - explaining that the rupture¹⁴ with the North Koreans at the time of the collapse¹⁵ of Communisim in the Soviet¹⁶ Union simply cut off all of both their influence and a lot of their intelligence they were getting from North Korea," said David Kay, the former chief nuclear weapons inspector¹⁷ for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

During his trip to the region last month, Sergei Lavrov made a little-noted statement. Speaking through an interpreter, he said Moscow is willing to help Pyongyang launch satellites into space from its territory.

"Russia is cooperating with many countries in the peaceful exploration of space, including launching satellites by our boosters. We have such agreements with South Korea and we are ready to develop similar projects with North Korea, and hope our proposal will be examined," said Lavrov.

Analysts say that statement indicates Russia would like to play a more active role in resolving the North Korean nuclear weapons issue.
　
A 07 Apr 2009 video grab by N. Korean TV shows a three-stage white rocket, being launched from an undisclosed location in N. Korea

Paul Carroll, a nuclear weapons and North Korea expert at the San Francisco-based Ploughshares Fund, an organization that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons, says the Russian proposal could be attractive to Pyongyang for several reasons.

"One is - I could see where it would be possibly internationally observable. And it could be verified that in fact, it was a satellite and space launch attempt and not just another disguise of a missile test," said Carroll. "The other thing is it would just, I think, bring the North Koreans a little bit more into the international norms of behavior. I would hope that the Russians, if they were to offer such a carrot, sort of explicitly¹⁸ would impose some kind of conditions through which the launch would be monitored and transparent¹⁹."

But Jim Walsh from MIT says he does not see the North Koreans allowing the Russians to send up satellites for them anytime soon.

"A satellite launch accomplishes several objectives for North Korea - part of it has to do with prestige. North Korea wants to say 'look, we did this, we're technologically²⁰ advanced, we're a big deal'. But if you outsource that to the Russians, then you can't quite make those claims. So I think it's unlikely in the near term that the North Koreans are going to let the Russians do their space work for them," he said.

However Carroll and Walsh agree that the perfect forum in which to discuss the Russian proposal would be the six-party talks. But analysts say the first order of business will be to persuade the North Koreans to return to the negotiating table they left after international criticism of their long range ballistic missile test.

1 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

2 handout   

n.散发的文字材料；救济品

参考例句：

• I read the handout carefully.我仔细看了这份分发的资料。
• His job was distributing handout at the street-corner.他的工作是在街头发传单。

3 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

4 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。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

7 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

8 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。

9 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

10 condemnation   

n.谴责; 定罪

参考例句：

• There was widespread condemnation of the invasion. 那次侵略遭到了人们普遍的谴责。
• The jury's condemnation was a shock to the suspect. 陪审团宣告有罪使嫌疑犯大为震惊。

11 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

13 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

14 rupture   

n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂

参考例句：

• I can rupture a rule for a friend.我可以为朋友破一次例。
• The rupture of a blood vessel usually cause the mark of a bruise.血管的突然破裂往往会造成外伤的痕迹。

15 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

16 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

17 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

18 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

19 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

20 technologically   

ad.技术上地

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a technologically advanced city. 上海是中国的一个技术先进的城市。
• Many senior managers are technologically illiterate. 许多高级经理都对技术知之甚少。