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.