- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reacting
to North Korea's admission of a secret nuclear weapons program, the United
States decided on Wednesday that fuel oil deliveries to Pyongyang under
a 1994 agreement should end after a shipment that is now en route, a senior
U.S. official said.
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- "The November shipment is the last one... The one
on the seas now will be allowed to go ahead. Then there is no more,"
the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
-
- He told Reuters President Bush)'s National Security Council
made the decision to end the supplies at a White House meeting and that
allies Japan, South Korea and the European Union were expected to concur.
The Bush administration had no immediate official comment.
-
- The U.S. decision was made ahead of a meeting on Thursday
of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which handles
the oil deliveries and has the authority to determine the program's schedule.
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- In October, North Korea acknowledged it had a covert
program to produce highly-enriched uranium, a key ingredient of nuclear
weapons. It has threatened to withdraw from the Agreed Framework if the
fuel oil shipments are halted.
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