N Korea on brink of restarting nuclear programme

FE Team | Published: September 26, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

SEOUL, Sept 25 (AFP): North Korea was Thursday on the brink of restarting the nuclear weapons programme it shut down 14 months ago under a landmark disarmament deal, as negotiating partners struggled to save the pact.
The communist state has told the UN atomic watchdog it will start work to resume plutonium reprocessing at its Yongbyon complex, possibly within a week. It has barred International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors from the reprocessing plant.
Analysts in Seoul say the North is practising brinkmanship in its bitter dispute with the United States over nuclear inspections, but is not necessarily bluffing.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the North's latest moves "will only deepen their isolation," but insisted that the tortuous six-nation nuclear disarmament talks which began in 2003 are not dead.
"We have been through ups and downs in this process before but I think the important thing is this is a six-party process," she said.
Rice and chief US negotiator Christopher Hill have been holding intensive talks with their counterparts from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
South Korea -- which was outraged and alarmed when the North tested an atomic weapon in October 2006 -- expressed deep concern.
"We have serious concerns about the North Korean move yesterday," said foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young.
"We are in close consultations with other participants in the six-party talks and calmly responding to make sure that North Korea should not aggravate the situation any further."
Under a deal reached in February 2007, North Korea in July that year shut down Yongbyon under IAEA supervision.
Four months later, it began disabling the plants. In June this year it handed over details of its plutonium-based nuclear programme, which was thought to have produced enough material for about six bombs before the shutdown.
In return, it was promised one million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent aid and its removal from a US terrorism blacklist which blocks some foreign aid.