Report: Activity At N. Korean Nuke Reactor

(CBS/AP)  North Korea may be preparing to shut down its main nuclear reactor, news reports said Tuesday, renewing hopes that Pyongyang will comply with a disarmament agreement days after it missed a deadline to shutter the facility.

The Yongbyon reactor was still in operation, but there was a high possibility that movement of cars and people at the site seen in satellite photos could be linked to a shutdown, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed intelligence official. The Dong-a Ilbo daily carried a similar report.

"All indications are that the combination of incentives and back-channel negotiations have brought North Korea to meet the international community's demands for its nuclear program to be suspended," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk, "but Pyongyang's continued compliance will depend on the delivery of electricity and fuel oil that was agreed to as part of the bargain."

An official at the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's main spy agency, told The Associated Press they were "following and analyzing some peculiar movements" around the reactor in North Korea, without elaborating. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Yonhap news agency cited another unnamed intelligence official as saying that South Korea and the United States have been closely monitoring some movement since a month ago.

"The intensity of these activities has increased from about a week or two ago," the official was quoted as saying. "There are activities other than cars and people moving busily."

The report comes after the North missed a Saturday deadline to shut down the reactor and allow U.N. inspectors to verify and seal the facility under a February agreement with the U.S. and four other countries.

If the North complies, that would be its first move toward stopping production of nuclear weapons since 2002, the start of the latest nuclear standoff. The North is believed to have produced as many as a dozen atomic bombs since then, and conducted an underground test detonation in October.

Pyongyang said last week that honoring its pledge was contingent on the release of money frozen in a separate financial dispute after Washington blacklisted a bank where North Korea had accounts. The funds were allegedly used in money laundering and counterfeiting.

The money was freed for withdrawal last week, but it's unclear when the North will move to get its US$25 million.

Macau's Banco Delta Asia said Monday it had filed a legal challenge to Washington's decision to cut it off from the U.S. financial system. The bank told the U.S. Department of Treasury that its accusations "lacked specific facts" and were motivated by politics, the bank said in a statement.

The U.S. move was "politically motivated since it was based on disputes between the United States and North Korea." The bank has repeatedly denied knowingly helping in North Korea's alleged illicit activities.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that South Korea was considering suspending rice shipments to the North in an apparent to move to ratchet up pressure.

The two Koreas were set to begin talks Wednesday in Pyongyang to discuss the North's request for 400,000 tons of rice.

South Korea periodically sends rice and fertilizer to the impoverished North, which has relied heavily on foreign handouts since the mid-1990s when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy and famine led to the deaths of as many as 2 million people.

[tbweb]

Iran is lucky to be sitting on the worlds 4th largest known oil reserve. Nobody in Iran should be paying for gas, gas should be free to Iranians. Iranian research efforts should center around more efficient ways to burn oil without polluting the environment. With all that oil, Iran is not even close to having an energy problem. Irans claim that it needs nuclear power to solve an energy problem is like someone who owns 5 cars trying to convince others its needs to own a 6th car to solve a transportation problem. The only practical purpose for Iran to acquire nuclear power is for nuclear weapons.

[randalds]

I think this would especially work with North Korea. Kim has a HUGE ego and a little diplomatic sucking up - making him think he is one of the big boys - would go a long way towards solving this crisis. But Kim is sneaky too and has to be watched. Whether he will accept the kind of watching we need to do is another matter.

Posted by Rafterman1 at 02:05 PM : Apr 17, 2007

That's true, he certainly bears close watching. Still he allowed the cameras and UN inspectors to operate without any hindrances during the Clinton years, mostly because they spoke to him with respect. I really think that's all he really wants from the rest of the world (I mean he obviously does have some sort of inferiority complex) is to be treated as one of the "big boys" and it's a very small price to pay to get him to stop developing nuclear weapons.

[musty2u]

It seems that freezing financial assests coupled with a potential withholding of rice shipments still has an affect.

[crater7]

TALK IS CHEEP?

AND IT WORKS TOO

[randalds]

Posted by tbweb at 11:32 PM : Apr 16, 2007

I know what you mean about a player getting a hot hand all of a sudden. As a Pistons fan I can remember in the late 80's-early 90's when they had a player named Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson. When he got hot he couldn't miss a shot if he tried.

As for Iran I think all we have to do is to send Bill Richardson there too. The Bush plan of belittling, threatening and insulting North Korea into stopping their nuclear plans didn't work for 6 years. Yet Bill Richardson was there for a week and they are falling all over themselves to comply. Why? Because he treats them with the respect due a foreign nation and leader, he talks to them as equals, not as children to be scolded like Bush's foreign policy is. Send him to Iran with real powers to negotiate and I can promise you that within a month there won't be a place in Iran they won't allow UN inspectors to go.

[grazinggoat]

Send them tons of Regular Pepsi/Coke, and let them boil it in their Nuclear reactors so they can extract the sugar from it. Put it into tea and make pastry with it. USA has a loads of extra production of this empty-calories sh*t all over our grocery stores shelves. Let the North Korean get some of the extra-pounds we put on year after year by drinking this sh*t.

[tbweb]

I like to watch basketball and the funny thing about basketball is that at some point in the basketball game a player on one of the teams gets hot! Every shot this player puts up goes in, nobody can explain it, but some call it being in the zone! Suddenly his team mates forget the game plan and just start feeding the hot player the ball, and why not everything they shoot is going in. Somewhere along this nuclear game North Korea got smart and hot and decided nuclear power was not it its best interest especially if the rest of the world wasn't confortable with N Korea having it right now. So whatever logic N Korea used to arrive at this decision is worth sharing with Iran, and since N Korea has the get rid of nukes hot hand, the best country to talk to Iran about getting rid of it nuclear plans right now would seem to be Irans buddy North Korea! The world should encourage North Korea to talk to Iran!