noverb:  Clinton Administration Plutonium Policy and North Korea
active:  U.S. policy on the use of plutonium has remained essentially the same under the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations
active:  the DPRK and South Korea must renounce all plutonium
active:  Japan can acquire
active:  it wants from U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel
passive: This discriminatory approach was reiterated by President Clinton
active:  nonproliferation policy states
active:  The United States does not encourage the civil use of plutonium
active:  , accordingly, does not itself
active:  engage in plutonium reprocessing for
noverb:  nuclear power
noverb:  nuclear explosive purposes
active:  The United States, however, will maintain its existing commitments regarding the use of plutonium in civil nuclear programs in Western Europe
noverb:  Japan
noverb:  1341
noverb:  At the same time
active:  U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary has launched an initiative
active:  to explore alternatives
active:  to reprocessing and has expressed her opposition to reprocessing and plutonium fuel cycles
active:  The U.S. has insisted
noverb:  the DPRK give up its reprocessing plant and all plutonium ambitions
noverb:  South Korean efforts
active:  to acquire reprocessing plants, plutonium separation technology, and related technology
passive: have also been quashed by firm U.S. diplomacy
passive: U.S. plutonium policy toward Japan is governed by the 1988 revision of the U.S.-Japanese nuclear cooperation agreement
active:  gave Japan advance approval
active:  to reprocess as much U.S.-origin spent fuel as it wants over a 30-year period [35]
noverb:  The previous agreement
active:  was not
active:  expire until 2003
active:  empowered the U.S.
active:  to decide each Japanese request for reprocessing
noverb:  plutonium use on a case-by-case basis
noverb:  In November 1991
noverb:  the North-South Korean bilateral denuclearization agreement was being negotiated
noverb:  -U.S. Secretary of State James Baker made clear
noverb:  prohibiting fuel cycle facilities was not sufficient
noverb:  the only firm assurance against a nuclear arms race in the Korean peninsula would be a credible agreement by
noverb:  Seoul
noverb:  Pyongyang
active:  to abstain from the production or acquisition of any weapons-grade nuclear material
noverb:  [emphasis supplied] [36]
active:  It is significant
active:  the North South agreement included a ban on production
noverb:  not on acquisition of plutonium
noverb:  presumably leaving South Korea free
active:  to seek reprocessing services
noverb:  delivery of separated plutonium from the U.K.
noverb:  France
active:  as Japan has done
noverb:  The present U.S. discriminatory policy may not prove diplomatically sustainable
active:  Japan and South Korea are democratic governments
active:  they are NPT members with full-scope safeguards
active:  they have defense treaties with the U.S.
noverb:  large-scale nuclear power programs
active:  The U.S. State Department must explain to South Korea
active:  it trusts Tokyo
noverb:  not Seoul
noverb:  with plutonium
active:  U.S. policy suggests
noverb:  NPT membership
active:  IAEA safeguards
active:  compliance are the ultimate solution to the Northeast Asian proliferation problem
active:  Absent the elimination of civil plutonium, however,
active:  this approach can only serve
active:  to codify the problem with an NPT/ IAEA stamp of approval
