Post by FaithWalker on Sept 22, 2008 6:58:43 GMT -6
VIENNA, Austria — The head of the U.N. nuclear agency said Monday that North Korea has asked his agency to remove its seals from the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
The move raised concerns that the North may be preparing to restart its mothballed nuclear program. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said authorities in Pyongyang say they only want to carry out unspecified tests that will not involve nuclear materials.
North Korea said last week it was making "thorough preparations" to restart Yongbyon, which it began disabling last year under a now-stalled disarmament-for-aid deal.
The announcement, the communist regime's first confirmation it has started undoing the dismantlement, came amid reports that leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke, news that fueled worries about instability in North Korea.
North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear program as a step toward its eventual dismantlement in return for diplomatic concessions and energy aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil under a disarmament accord in February 2007 with South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
North Korea has so far received nearly half of the energy aid that it was promised.
But the deal hit an impasse 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 to verify a declaration of its nuclear programs it submitted earlier.
North Korea responded by halting the disabling process and said it has begun work to restore the Yongbyon complex to its original status.
Link
The move raised concerns that the North may be preparing to restart its mothballed nuclear program. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said authorities in Pyongyang say they only want to carry out unspecified tests that will not involve nuclear materials.
North Korea said last week it was making "thorough preparations" to restart Yongbyon, which it began disabling last year under a now-stalled disarmament-for-aid deal.
The announcement, the communist regime's first confirmation it has started undoing the dismantlement, came amid reports that leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke, news that fueled worries about instability in North Korea.
North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear program as a step toward its eventual dismantlement in return for diplomatic concessions and energy aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil under a disarmament accord in February 2007 with South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
North Korea has so far received nearly half of the energy aid that it was promised.
But the deal hit an impasse 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 to verify a declaration of its nuclear programs it submitted earlier.
North Korea responded by halting the disabling process and said it has begun work to restore the Yongbyon complex to its original status.
Link