USA to freeze power plant construction in North Korea?

The fate of the nuclear power plant with two light-water reactors will be decided in Tokyo and Seoul in the next few days by the head of a consortium that was the US set up to head the project.

According to a Wednesday announcement from the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Charles Cartman, the head of the Korean Energy Development Organisation, or KEDO, is coming to Tokyo on Thursday, June 26. After a three-day stay, he will move on to Seoul on Saturday, June 29.

According to Japanese press reports, Japan and South Korea, two of the United States' closest allies in Asia, are forced to coordinate their actions in respect of North Korea, whom the current US administration refers to as one of the countries of the "axis of evil." North Korea has resumed its old nuclear program because of the States' anti-Pyongyang course and thwarted construction of the power plant, whose first unit was to be put into operation in 2003. Washington wants to freeze all activities in the KEDO framework, citing North Korea's refusal to sign a protocol of compensations in the event of incidents at the future power plant with the consortium.