By Staff
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, hailed Tuesday's announcement that a tentative agreement had been reached for the first steps towards North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
The United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan encouraged North Korea to accept this agreement, which would exchange the shut-down of North Korea's main nuclear reactor for 50,000 tons of fuel or other economic aid of equal value.
The tentative agreement is similar to the framework Upton and his colleagues pursued in 2005.
"This is quite a breakthrough in our quest for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," said Upton.
"While this is an important first step, it is essential that we keep North Korea's feet to the fire," he added. "After years of fits and starts for the diplomatic negotiations between the six nations, I am encouraged by the progress that has been made in the last few weeks."
Upton traveled to North Korea in January 2005 to help revive the six-party talks and get the nations all back to the table for diplomatic discussions.
"The tentative agreement is the same framework that we were striving for when we traveled to North Korea two years ago," he said. "It is imperative that we continue to maintain a strong and open dialogue with Pyongyang."
Feb. 13's announcement follows Pyongyang's previous withdrawals from the multilateral talks on several occasions. The isolationist regime also claims they conducted nuclear weapons tests in October 2006.