Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
Encyclopedia
| Country | U.S. dollars (millions) |
|---|---|
| South Korea | 1,455 |
| Japan | 498 |
| United States | 405 |
| European Atomic Energy Community |
122 |
| Australia | 14 |
| Others | 18 |
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is an organization founded on March 15, 1995 by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to implement the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework that froze North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
's indigenous nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
development centered at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center
Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center
The Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center is North Korea's major nuclear facility, operating its first nuclear reactors. It is located in the county of Nyŏngbyŏn in North Pyongan province, about 90 km north of Pyongyang...
, that was suspected of being a step in a nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s program.
KEDO's principal activity is to construct a light water reactor
Light water reactor
The light water reactor is a type of thermal reactor that uses normal water as its coolant and neutron moderator. Thermal reactors are the most common type of nuclear reactor, and light water reactors are the most common type of thermal reactor...
nuclear power plant in North Korea to replace North Korea's Magnox
Magnox
Magnox is a now obsolete type of nuclear power reactor which was designed and is still in use in the United Kingdom, and was exported to other countries, both as a power plant, and, when operated accordingly, as a producer of plutonium for nuclear weapons...
type reactors, with an original target date for completion of 2003.
Since then, other members have joined:
- 1995: AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... - 1996: ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an... - 1997: European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... - 1999: Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
- 2000: UzbekistanUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
KEDO discussions take place at the level of a U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
United States Assistant Secretary of State
In modern times, Assistant Secretary of State is a title used for many executive positions in the United States State Department. A set of six Assistant Secretaries reporting to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs manage diplomatic missions within their designated geographic regions, plus one...
, South Korea's deputy foreign minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
, and the head of the Asian bureau of Japan's Foreign Ministry.
The KEDO Secretariat was located in New York.
History
Kumho (South Hamgyong)
Kumho is a chigu, or area, in South Hamgyong province, near the city of Sinpo, North Korea. Kumho was part of Sinpo until 1995, when it was made a special area under the direct administration of the province...
, 30 km north of Sinpo
Sinpo
Sinpo is a port city on the coast of the Sea of Japan in central South Hamgyong province, North Korea. According to the last available census, approximately 158,000 people reside here.-Weather:...
. The Kumho site had been previously selected for two similar sized reactors that had been promised in the 1980s by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, before its collapse.
Soon after the Agreed Framework was signed, U.S. Congress control changed to the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, who did not support the agreement. Some Republican Senators were strongly against the agreement, regarding it as appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
. KEDO's first director, Stephen Bosworth, later commented "The Agreed Framework was a political orphan within two weeks after its signature".
Arranging project financing
Project finance
Project finance is the long term financing of infrastructure and industrial projects based upon the projected cash flows of the project rather than the balance sheets of the project sponsors...
was not easy, and formal invitations to bid were not issued until 1998, by which time the delays were infuriating North Korea. Significant spending on the LWR project did not commence until 2000, with "First Concrete" pouring at the construction site
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
on August 7, 2002. Construction of both reactors was well behind the original schedule.
In the wake of the breakdown of the Agreed Framework in 2003, KEDO has largely lost its function. KEDO ensured that the nuclear power plant project assets at the construction site at Kumho
Kumho (South Hamgyong)
Kumho is a chigu, or area, in South Hamgyong province, near the city of Sinpo, North Korea. Kumho was part of Sinpo until 1995, when it was made a special area under the direct administration of the province...
in North Korea and at manufacturers’ facilities around the world ($1.5 billion invested to date) were preserved and maintained. The project was reported to be about 30% complete. One reactor containment building
Containment building
A containment building, in its most common usage, is a steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radiation to a maximum pressure in the range of 60 to 200 psi...
was about 50% complete and another about 15% finished. No key equipment for the reactors has been moved yet to the site.
In 2005 there were reports indicating that KEDO had agreed in principle to terminate the light-water reactor project. On January 9, 2006, it was announced that the project was over and the workers would be returning to their home countries. North Korea demanded compensation and has refused to return the approximately $45 million worth of equipment left behind.
Executive Directors
- Stephen W. BosworthStephen W. BosworthStephen Warren Bosworth is Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University and serves as United States Special Representative for North Korea Policy. He has served three times as a U.S. Ambassador, to South Korea , to the Philippines , and to Tunisia...
1995-1997 - Desaix Anderson 1997-2001
- Charles Kartman 2001-2005
External links
- Official KEDO website
- Agreement on Supply of a Light-Water Reactor Project to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - KEDO, 1995
- Ten Years of KEDO: What Have We Learned?, U.S. Institute of Peace, March 10, 2005
- Half-forgotten project is a key in next round of 6-party talks - JoongAng DailyJoongAng IlboJoongAng Ilbo is a conservative newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the "big three newspapers" in South Korea. It has a circulation of 1.96 million copies in South Korea . Its average page count per copy is around 52...
, 12 September 2005 - Kumho: North Korea's nuclear ghost town - Asia TimesAsia TimesAsia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....
, September 24, 2005 - KEDO Puts Final Nail in N.Korea Reactor Project, The Chosun Ilbo, November 23, 2005
- KEDO told to leave North Korea, JoongAng Daily, December 13, 2005
- N.Korea says to build light-water nuclear reactors, ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, December 20, 2005 - An unfair burden, JoongAng Daily, December 23, 2005
- KEDO Demands $1.9 Bil. Compensation From NK, The Korea TimesThe Korea TimesThe Korea Times is the oldest of three English-language newspapers published daily in South Korea, along with The Korea Herald and The JoongAng Daily. It is part of the same newspaper group as Hankook Ilbo, a major Korean language daily...
, January 16, 2007