S. Korea: North Restarting Nuclear Work

Pyongyang Reassembling Main Facilities, Citing Removal From U.S. List Of Terror Sponsors

(AP)  South Korea said Wednesday that North Korea has started restoring its nuclear facilities after the communist country suspended operations last month to disable them.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that South Korea, the United States and other countries involved in nuclear negotiations with the North are working closely together to determine how to respond to Pyongyang's latest move.

The statement said the South Korean government was "seriously concerned" about its communist neighbor's move, adding that it undermines progress in international disarmament efforts.

The ministry refused to disclose how it confirmed the North had begun work to restore its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.

Earlier Wednesday, Japan's public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency reported that North Korea started putting its nuclear facility back together Tuesday, days after it halted disablement work.

The South Korean statement was vague about the exact timing of Pyongyang's resumption of work on its nuclear facilities. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the work began Wednesday.

In Washington, the top U.S. diplomat in charge of monitoring compliance with weapons agreements said it was not clear if the North Koreans actually intended to rebuild the facility or were just "posturing."

"Everyone has known from the beginning that the (disablement) actions they were taking at Yongbyon were reversible," said Paula deSutter, the assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance, and implementation. DeSutter spoke to reporters before South Korea confirmed reports that the North had restarted its nuclear work.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it had no immediate comment on Wednesday's claims.

North Korea last week said it had stopped disabling its nuclear reactor on Aug. 14 and threatened to restore the plutonium-producing facility, citing Washington's failure to remove it from its list of terrorism sponsors.

In response, the U.S. repeated its demand that North Korea first agree to a plan to verify an accounting of nuclear programs submitted in June.

North Korea began disabling its nuclear plant in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, in November, but then slowed the work to protest a delay in the provision of promised aid from its negotiating partners.

Disarmament efforts reported major progress in June after Pyongyang submitted its long-delayed nuclear declaration and destroyed its nuclear cooling tower in a show of its commitment to denuclearization.

The U.S. then announced it would remove North Korea from the terrorism blacklist, a coveted goal of the cash-strapped communist regime.

South Korean and U.S. officials have said that it would take at least a year for the North to restart the facilities after they are completely disabled.

Despite the move, NHK said North Korea was still allowing access to experts from U.S. and International Atomic Energy Agency.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. was talking to North Korean officials to "look for solutions" to move forward international nuclear disarmament negotiations.

[smurfcrusher]

More evidence of Bush''s failed policies.

[caco58]

Just as I expected. When will the U.S. realize you cannot negotiate with these people? They have broken the treaty over 4,000 times. I have seen this regime face to face, and they will stab you in the back and then spit on you. They got their oil payment, thats all they wanted.

[jmurrieta1]

Shouldn''t take long to put that cooling water line back in. And the old cooling tower can be easily replaced.

The reactor core was never dismantled, apparently.

So much for another Bushit "success".

[talkingham]

Another Mission Accomplished!

[middleman8]

Due to the world threat from the U S, any country leaders that do not arm their countries with WMD''s is not doing a proper job.

[eggy1620]

This article rests on the presumption that the N Koreans actually began to dismantle their program. Something that was not verified so cannot be presumed.

[bobnjersey]

[You can thank your precious Bill Clinton for us having to deal with N. Korea in the first place. Mission Monica was more important.]
[Posted by corey2444 at 10:21 AM : Sep 03, 2008]

mission monica was about five minutes out of his day ... about a half dozen times.

but mission ''destroy clinton'' ran from 1992 on thru even today ... spearheaded by his political enemies ... those who think like you ... and it''s you we all thank for re-directing the focus on more important issues of the day ... like whitewater, that big travel office scandal, claims of death squads murdering clinton staff members, and ultimately impeachment proceedings over a bj.

you should all be proud ... all your pathetic issues have trumped the really important ones ... like nuclear proliferation, terrorism, energy, etc.

shall we talk about lapel pins now ... i know how important this is to you?

[rjsparling]

Due to the world threat from the U S, any country leaders that do not arm their countries with WMD''''s is not doing a proper job. Posted by middleman8


I would want to if I was North Korea, Iran, or Russia. Wait a min - Russia does have them!

[erasmus81]

"Bush failed. They should have taken them off the list." Posted by jh6379 at 09:13 AM : Sep 03, 2008

I don''t think it really matters. North Korea has no intentions of completely disabling their nuclear facilities.

[talkingham]

Corey is obviously obsessed with other people''s sexual exploits because of his neocon impotency training.

Bush has wasted a trillion dollars in Iraq, raised the price of gas with his big oil buddies 300%. His mission to destroy America is almost accomplished.