N. Korea Ending Its Nuclear Freeze

Pyongyang Bars Inspectors From Main Nuclear Complex, Warns S. Korea Against Provoking Warfare

(CBS/ AP)  North Korea announced Thursday that it is preparing to restart the facility that produced its atomic bomb, indicating that it plans to pull out of an international deal to end its nuclear program.

The North told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was stopping the process of disabling its main nuclear site and completely barring international inspectors from the Yongbyon facility, the agency said.

"Since it is preparing to restart the facilities at Yongbyon, the DPRK has informed the IAEA that our monitoring activities would no longer be appropriate," the U.N. nuclear watchdog said, using the formal acronym for North Korea.

It said that Pyongyang "informed IAEA inspectors that effective immediately access to facilities at Yongbyon would no longer be permitted" and "also stated that it has stopped its (nuclear) disablement work."

Pyongyang barred agency personnel from the plutonium-reprocessing part of its facility at Yongbyon last month after telling them to remove IAEA seals from the plant in a reversal of its pledge to disable its nuclear program.

But Thursday's statement was the clearest indication to date that the North planned to abrogate the deal, said a senior diplomat familiar with the statement. The diplomat demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media.

Still, Pyongyang's moves also could be a negotiating ploy - the year needed to start its reprocessing plant could be used to wrest more concessions from its interlocutors.

The IAEA said its small inspection team would remain on the site until told otherwise by North Korean authorities, and the U.S. State Department said it does not view North Korea's statement as the end of the six-nation agreement on ending North Korea's atomic program.

"This is a regrettable step, but one that is reversible," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

North Korea, meanwhile, warned South Korea against sending naval ships into its waters, threatening warfare as it reportedly shifted an arsenal of missiles to a nearby island for more test launches.

The warning came hours after a South Korean newspaper reported that a U.S. spy satellite detected signs the North had positioned about 10 missiles near the disputed sea border after test-firing two short-range missiles on Tuesday. The Chosun Ilbo report cited an unidentified South Korean official.

"North Korea is preparing for a new missile test as a way of pressuring the West, particularly the U.S., to make good on its commitment to take the government of Kim Jung Ill off the State Department's terrorist list," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N., "but it is precisely this kind of threat and the fact that North Korea has failed to verify the dismantling of its nuclear program that keeps Pyongyang on the list."

"The deployment of missiles and a possible test by North Korea is a desperate move," said Falk, "and puts the other five nations involved in the talks in a box, but food shortages and the unease about succession in North Korea is moving them in a self-defeating and threatening direction and returns the negotiations to square one."

Yongbyon, located about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, has three main facilities: a 5-megawatt reactor, a plutonium reprocessing plant and a fuel fabrication complex.

The reactor is the centerpiece of the complex, with the facility stretching more than a mile along the Churyong River, satellite images show.

The reprocessing center to the south of the reactor is capable of extracting weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods. Thousands of them remain in storage but would likely be moved to the reprocessing plant as a next step.

South of the reprocessing center, fuel rods are made from natural uranium in the fuel fabrication complex that lies tucked into a bend in the Churyong River.

A second reactor with the potential to produce much high higher quantities of plutonium has not been completed.

Yongbyon was under IAEA seal in December 2002 when Pyongyang ordered U.N. inspectors out of the country and restarted its nuclear activities, unraveling a deal committing the U.S. to help the North build a peaceful nuclear program.

North Korea quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in January 2003. Then on Oct. 9, 2006, it set off an underground test explosion of a nuclear bomb. There was widespread international condemnation, but the U.S. also softened its position and the six-nation deal soon followed.

The North was to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear complex in return for diplomatic concessions and energy aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil under the deal with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

Scientists began disabling the Yongbyon reactor a year ago, and in June the North blew up its cooling tower in a dramatic show of commitment to the pact.

Eight of the 11 steps needed to disable the reactor had been completed by July, North Korean officials said.

But the accord hit a bump in mid-August when the U.S. refused to remove North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism until the North accepts a plan for verifying a list of nuclear assets that the Pyongyang regime submitted to its negotiating partners.

John Bolton, who has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. undersecretary of state in charge of the North Korean nuclear dossier, said the North's latest move is "just another piece of evidence that the diplomatic route has failed."

Bolton, a critic of what he considers U.S. leniency with Pyongyang, told The Associated Press that "it would be inconceivable to remove North Korea from the terrorism list now, if in fact they have gone further and expelled IAEA inspectors."

[swingset4u]

Does this mean we get our oil and aide back???

[souljam76]

This is the time that the United States needs to go to WAR with North Korea. The United States needed to do the first place when North Korea tested missles in July 4th 2006. But President Bush chose not to do so. I sure hope John McCain & Barrack Obama both takes North Korea seriously when one of those two gets elected president. The war in Iraq is necessary & a must win. same with Afghanistan. But we also need to go to WAR with North Korea & then Iran because of those two countries being nuclear threats to the United States.

[questionnews]

This is just a way for ol'' Kim Jong to lure another US delegation back to Pyongyang so he can hook up with another American hottie like old "Straddling Madeline Albright." He had such a with her and there are few round eyes in North Korea.
He has the champagne chilled & a large supply of Viagra at the ready!!

[tangouniforn]

F anyone ever tried to do that nothing would ever make it here. (Unless our Air Force, Navy, "star wars" and all other defense systems failed, & I doubt that would happen).


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Posted by generey at 02:02 PM : Oct 09, 2008

____________________________________________________

I really hope that you had your tongue in you cheek when you said "star wars". That program has so many holes in it that it has trouble intercepting a target when the target is saying here I am, here I am.
MAD is the only policy that is holding enemies at bay.

[duhrer]

The correct facts about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the timing of our bombs is that we bombed Hiroshima while they were working on negotiations with the Soviet Union which broke down and the USSR declared war on the Manchurian units of the Japanese Army... August 6, 1945. After we dropped the first bomb, Emperor Hirohito, the government and the War council were considering four conditions for surrender... in other words they were ready to surrender, it was just the details they hadn''t yet discussed with anyone. 5 days later (hardly enough for countries to properly respond to each other back then, we dropped another... "Fat Man"... on Nagasaki. As much as the war mongerers and fiercely frightened fascists want to justify it, we may be able to say the first bomb was warranted... but the second was a punitive measure and allowed us to test our new toy. Please don''t try again to justify America''s aggressive nature by saying it was all right.

[generey]

Sure if it''''s a missile launched from there, I said "bomb delivery system" lots of other ways. I am no expert but how about a suicide submarine?


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Posted by thgdriver1 at 02:17 PM : Oct 09, 2008

Well I suppose there are many many ways to "attack" but with all the technology we have today and all the national defense security forces basically on a permanent "high alert" I would expect the Navy has the coasts covered. They know who is out there & where they are. We were subjects of the element of surprise at Pearl Harbor and then again on 9/11 but I dont think that will happen again. Granted, our enemies (as goofy as many of them are) are not stupid, but I''m sure our defense forces have everything covered. We have the technology. I hate it for S. Korea & the rest but, right now we need to concentrate on our own internal problems & deal with the world later. Unless they are already within our borders I do not believe anyone could possibly "attack" us from land, sea or air and succeed. We have been suckered before, but we have learned from it.

[generey]

They have been biding their time to get a bomb delivery system and when they do we can kiss the West coast of the USA goodbye.


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Posted by thgdriver1 at 01:52 PM : Oct 09, 2008

IF anyone ever tried to do that nothing would ever make it here. (Unless our Air Force, Navy, "star wars" and all other defense systems failed, & I doubt that would happen).

[easeup-2009]

Posted by dcitizen at 01:29 PM : Oct 09, 2008

No way the U.S. is alone on this one. China, Russia, South Korea and Japan are all involved. Secondly, the U.S. has ALREADY BUILT light water reactors in NK in accordance with the Agreed Framework treaty. The problem is, NK took all the aid and the nuclear power while secretly enriching uranium in violation of the deal.

The current situation is basically the same agreement EXCEPT this time we want to verify and monitor NK to make sure they don''t screw us again. NK is not going to allow inspections, hence the sabre-rattling.

Lastly the U.S. was NOT negotiating with Japan when the bombs were dropped--we were planning sending over a million soldiers onto Japan''s beaches to face people who already were training old people, women & children to fight to the death. The bombings saved WAY more than 100,000 lives.

[dcitizen-2009]

We have a problem: the U.S. has made a deal to supply India with nuclear technology, India will pay the U.S. and approved U.S. contractors for this technology. North Korea and Iran are not willing to pay the U.S. or approved U.S. sub-contractors for their nuclear projects. When you strip the rhetoric away, the bottom line is that the U.S. feels it has a monopoly on anything nuclear. Iran and North Korea both need electric power - not many major rivers in these country''s. If you don''t agree to pay the U.S., you advance to the terrorist list, and fears of nuclear weapons are spread world wide by the U.S. press and media. Let''s see, how many country''s have used nuclear weapons ? One - the U.S., while negotiating with Japan, the U.S. wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki and over 100,000 civilians.

[easeup-2009]

Correct. Aint none of our business. What would that do...hurt our economy? LOL.

Posted by generey at 01:10 PM : Oct 09, 2008

They can fire when ready at China!

[generey]

On Tuesday, North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles into the waters off the west coast. South Korean and U.S. officials declined to confirm the reports, but U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that the U.S. "would advise against" any short-range missile firing by the North.

And just who the hell are we to tell them what they can and cannot do? We do what we want, when we want, where we want. Aint none of our business.

Posted by generey at 11:31 AM : Oct 09, 2008

None of our business if those lunatics turn Japan into a dust bowl? Taiwan? China?

Sheez.......


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Posted by easeup at 11:32 AM : Oct 09, 2008

Correct. Aint none of our business. What would that do...hurt our economy? LOL.

[easeup-2009]

On Tuesday, North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles into the waters off the west coast. South Korean and U.S. officials declined to confirm the reports, but U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that the U.S. "would advise against" any short-range missile firing by the North.

And just who the hell are we to tell them what they can and cannot do? We do what we want, when we want, where we want. Aint none of our business.

Posted by generey at 11:31 AM : Oct 09, 2008

None of our business if those lunatics turn Japan into a dust bowl? Taiwan? China?

Sheez.......

[generey]

On Tuesday, North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles into the waters off the west coast. South Korean and U.S. officials declined to confirm the reports, but U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that the U.S. "would advise against" any short-range missile firing by the North.

And just who the hell are we to tell them what they can and cannot do? We do what we want, when we want, where we want. Aint none of our business.

[easeup-2009]

Why do you people launch your childish temper tantrums on every single board? Most of the time your tirades have absolutely NOTHING to do with the article.

Just makes you look stupid.

[easeup-2009]

All I can say is Thank God there''''s only 3 more months left where the world has to endure the moron-in-chief. He''''s singlehandedly fu_cked up the economy, foreign affairs and our relations around the world, and his almost childish foreign policy has encouraged "Eye-Ran" and N.Korea to pursue nukes. Even the debt clock in New York can''''t keep up with the chimp''''s run up on national debt.




Posted by cdfoxtrot4 at 11:22 AM : Oct 09, 2008

How do you blame Bush for this?

Wipe the drool from your chin.

[arthurcl1]

YES I HAVE SAID THIS SINCE LAST JULY! THANKS PELOSI FOR SPEAKING OUT! BUSH IS A TOTAL FAILURE AND WORST PRESIDENT LIAR TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GOING OVER U.N. TO INVADE IRAQ WITH NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOUND! HE NEEDS TO GET OUT NOW SINCE OUR COUNTRY IS IN HIS RUINS! OUT! OUT! OUT! 3 MONTHS LEFT! OR HE WILL INVADE IRAN AND NORTH KOREA NEXT!
"You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for "challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

[cdfoxtrot4]

All I can say is Thank God there''s only 3 more months left where the world has to endure the moron-in-chief. He''s singlehandedly fu_cked up the economy, foreign affairs and our relations around the world, and his almost childish foreign policy has encouraged "Eye-Ran" and N.Korea to pursue nukes. Even the debt clock in New York can''t keep up with the chimp''s run up on national debt.

[easeup-2009]

From everything I''''ve read we didn''''t follow through on our part of the deal that got them to stop to begin with. Now they are retaliating. Makes sense to me. Of course I don''''t like it, but I can understand it. If the US under Bush lived up to it''''s promises we wouldn''''t have this to deal with.

Posted by bob5ford at 10:53 AM : Oct 09, 2008

Clearly you haven''t read a thing on this.

[easeup-2009]

Mr. bush, they played you like a violin. Just like Wall Street.

Posted by vancouverboo at 10:52 AM : Oct 09, 2008

They played Clinton like a violin under the Agreed Framework treaty. They agreed to take our food & nuclear energy technology--but they CONTINUED to develop nuclear weapons in secrecy.

They finally agreed to try it again but now the UN is insisting that we actually MONITOR these facilities & that is pissing NK off.

Try actually READING the article before you launch your childish temper tantrums.

[vancouverboo]

Mr. bush, they played you like a violin. Just like Wall Street.