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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 15, 2003

Statement by the Press Secretary
Presidential Determination Regarding Kedo Funding

The President today determined that it is in the vital U.S. national security interest to provide up to $3.72 million in assistance to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) for administrative expenses for Fiscal Year 2003. The President thereby waived the restriction on assistance to KEDO in section 562 of Title II of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations, 2003, Division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003 (P.L. 107-7).

No part of the FY 2003 U.S. contribution will be used for construction of light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, which was premised on North Korea's abandonment of its nuclear arms program. The members of the KEDO Executive Board will convene soon and the United States believes it should then agree formally to stop work on the LWR project. Our contribution also will not be used to finance heavy fuel oil shipments to North Korea, which KEDO suspended in November 2002.

The United States seeks the complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. While all options remain on the table, we are pursuing a multilateral diplomatic approach to achieve that end. The United States is working especially closely with regional powers, allies and friends, which share the conviction that the Korean Peninsula must be free of nuclear weapons.

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