Energy consortium to demand DPRK pay for failed project

A multinational energy consortium will demand the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) pay 1.89 billion U.S. dollars in compensation for the collapse of the project to provide the country with two light-water reactors, local media reported Monday. The demand by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), which involves South Korea, the United States and Japan, comes after the DPRK asked the consortium in September to pay 5.8 billion U.S. dollars for financial losses associated with the failed project. The KEDO, established in 1995, had planned to build two 1,000- megawatt light-water reactors in the DPRK in exchange for suspension of nuclear facility at the DPRK's Yongbyon atomic complex. Since the consortium was officially called off in 2006, the KEDO has been asking the DPRK to pay compensation for its violation of the agreement, according to Yonhap News Agency. The DPRK never responded to such calls.