By KUNA,
Tokyo : North Korea has demanded Japan offer financial aid of USD 40 million for building facilities to produce gases using anthracite coal in return for denuclearization, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, citing a South Korean diplomatic source.
The request was made during the inter-Korean working-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom on June 5, the source told Yonhap on Tuesday, adding that Pyongyang also asked China to carry out the construction work.
“There are no particular problems as to building facilities to produce gases from anthracite, except which side will shoulder a financial burden through which method,” the source was quoted as saying.
Last year, North Korea signed the deal with its dialogue partners in the six-way nuclear talks to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for political incentives and a million tons of fuel aid.
Half of the aid is heavy oil and the rest is energy facilities equivalent to 500,000 tons of heavy oil, but Tokyo has maintained its position against offering economic and energy aid to Pyongyang unless disputes over North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s are fully settled.
North Korea has said in the past that it considers the cases closed.
The six-way talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia.