PLOTTING

Russian Officials Offered North Korea a Nuclear Power Plant: WaPo

The secret offer is seen as a Russian bid to intervene in the high-stakes nuclear talks between U.S. and North Korea.

Russian officials secretly offered a nuclear power plant to North Korea last fall, said U.S. officials familiar with the discussions, The Washington Post reports. The offer was reportedly made in an effort to resolve deadlocked negotiations with the Trump administration over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. In exchange for dismantling its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, Russia offered North Korea a nuclear power plant. The Moscow offer, which U.S. intelligence officials became aware of in late 2018, marks a new bid by Russia to intervene in the high-stakes nuclear talks. The attempt is expected to unsettle Chinese and U.S. officials wary of granting Moscow an economic foothold on the Korean Peninsula. The deal reportedly would transfer all nuclear byproduct and waste back to Russia, reducing the risk that North Korea uses the power plant to build nuclear weapons while providing the impoverished country a new energy source.

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