NORTH KOREAN REPROCESSING: CANADA WILL RAISE

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001323 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2013 TAGS: PREL KNNP KN CA SUBJECT: NORTH KOREAN REPROCESSING: CANADA WILL RAISE CONCERNS WITH DPRK REF: STATE 114597 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Brian Flora, Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Canada shares our strong concerns about North Korean statements on reprocessing spent fuel (reftel),and plans to convey those concerns directly to DPRK officials at the UN and in Beijing. Political Director Jim Wright told Political Minister Counselor on May 7 that he will also suggest that Foreign Minister Graham make a public statement about Canadian concerns in connection with the G-8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Paris later this month. The South Korean Ambassador had met with Wright earlier that day, and asked how the G-8 meetings in Paris and Evian would deal with North Korea. In preparation for the G-8, Wright asked if we could provide him readouts on the Roh and Koizumi visits to Washington as well as reactions to our demarche in other capitals. ¶2. (C) Wright said that Canada has exactly the same objective as the U.S. for North Korea - a complete, verifiable, and irreversible termination of the nuclear program. He worried that the verification regime put in place in the 1990s, which was the best we could do at the time, hadn't been sufficient. Wright asked if we have seen any physical evidence yet that reprocessing has started back up. He had seen intelligence reports on activity around the Yongbyon facility, but wondered if there was more. ¶3. (C) Wright also said that Canada would continue to push in multilateral fora to bring pressure to bear on the DPRK. He noted that the Canadian delegation to the NPT PrepCom was encouraging other delegations to be more vocal on North Korea. The Canadian team had been asked by the Hungarian Chair to draft a factual summary of proceedings, which they were doing. He noted that this was not ideal, but was probably the best outcome possible as divergent views on North Korea precluded a meaningful declaration. CELLUCCI