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WASHINGTON : The United States said Wednesday it planned to send a second shipment of fuel oil to North Korea even though it has not provided a full declaration of its nuclear programmes under an aid-for-disarmament deal.
"We have another shipment which we are beginning to get going on this week," said Christopher Hill, the US envoy to the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, at a Congressional hearing.
Under the deal, the North Koreans would receive about one million tonnes of fuel oil or its equivalent as well as diplomatic and security guarantees as it moves to disband its nuclear programme.
The United States, China, South Korea and Russia had dispatched 50,000 tonnes of oil each to North Korea so far after it froze its key Yongbyon nuclear facilities and began disabling them last year.
But Pyongyang, which tested a nuclear bomb more than a year ago, has not meet a December 31, 2007 deadline to make a complete declaration of its nuclear programmes despite prodding by the United States and other partners.
Hill said the North Koreans also recently slowed down their nuclear disablement process -- by operating on one shift instead of three shifts -- partly because they felt they had not been adequately compensated for their disablement activities.
"There is a perception among the North Koreans that they have moved faster on disablement than we have on fuel oil," he said.
The North Koreans had completed eight of 10 components of the disablement process but only received 20 percent of the fuel oil that was promised, he said.
Hill, who is Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, expected a "couple" of more shipments of fuel oil, including the US consignment, to compensate for the nuclear disablement.
But he said he was more worried about North Korea's reluctance to make a "complete and correct" declaration of its nuclear programmes, which could dampen the entire denuclearization process.
Asked by Democratic Senator John Kerry why the North Koreans were not giving a full list of their nuclear programmes, Hill said they were "reluctant to acknowledge their activities in certain areas because they have denied that in the past.
"They are worried that we would take some of the acknowledgements and start peeling away and will continue to ask more and more questions," he said.
North Korea says it submitted a list of its nuclear programmes in November but the United States insists it must account fully for a suspected secret highly enriched uranium weapons programme aside from its well known plutonium activities.
Asked how long US President George W. Bush's administration would wait for a declaration from Pyongyang, Hill said "obviously our president will have to make a judgment" at a certain juncture.
"We intend to ensure that Pyongyang lives up to the word by submitting to the Chinese chair as soon as possible a declaration that is in fact complete and correct," he said at the hearing which was aimed at determining the progress of the six-party talks chaired by China.
The other parties are the United States, Russia, the two Koreas and Japan.
- AFP /ls
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