N Korea rebuilding nuke facility

2008-09-03 21:58

Tokyo - North Korea has begun reassembling its Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs in violation of US conditions for improved diplomatic relations, media reported.

Japan's Kyodo news agency said reconstruction began on Monday. It cited sources in Beijing close to six-party nuclear talks on North Korean, which involve Japan, South Korea, Russia and China, as well as North Korea and the United States.

North Korea said on August 26 it would stop disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear complex and accused the United States of violating a disarmament-for-aid deal.

Fox News, quoting US officials, said the North Koreans were likely protesting a US delay in removing the communist state from its list of terrorist-sponsoring nations.

'Symbolic gesture'

Fox did not give details of the reassembly work nor did it cite a North Korean source.

"They've been threatening this move for some time," one US official told Fox, adding that until now the threats were seen as merely a way for North Korean officials "to express their anger".

Even now, piecing the facility back together is seen as a "symbolic gesture" because so much already has been taken apart, Fox reported.

Another US official told Fox News that North Korea's reactor could be back in operation in two to three months.

White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe declined to directly address the report, and stressed again the need for North Korea to provide a mechanism to verify that is truly dismantling its nuclear programme.

- Reuters