A rchive Date
[ 27-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ North Korea ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/22/8113-ap.html
N. Korea nuke crisis worsens
Thu, December 26, 2002
SEOUL (AP) - North Korea's moves to restart a nuclear reactor U.S. officials believe was used to make one or two atomic bombs amount to "nuclear brinkmanship" and are "very worrying," the UN nuclear watchdog said Thursday. North Korea, however, said it is "peace-loving" and has no plans to develop weapons at the site.
Across the fortified border from North Korea, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said his country will never tolerate its neighbour's nuclear development. But he said the South seeks a peaceful end to a dispute that resembles a 1994 crisis over the same reactor that some say nearly led to war.
The White House, which is considering a war against Iraq, also wants a diplomatic solution on the Korean Peninsula. A prominent Republican senator said U.S. military action against the North would invite a "devastating" reprisal against South Korea.
"Our strategy now has to be one of multilateral engagement," involving nations such as Japan, China and Russia, Senator Richard Lugar, incoming chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said on NBC's Today.
Australia shelved plans Friday to open an embassy in North Korea amid the rising tension linked to North Korean moves to reactivate its nuclear weapons program.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australia has told North Korea restoring full diplomatic links could not proceed while it violates nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
North Korean workers have moved 1,000 fresh fuel rods to a storage site near the Soviet-designed, five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon that was frozen in a deal with Washington that ended the 1994 crisis, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said. A total of 8,000 such rods are needed to start the reactor.
"Moving towards restarting its nuclear facilities without appropriate safeguards, and towards producing plutonium raises serious non-proliferation concerns and is tantamount to nuclear brinkmanship," Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the Vienna-based agency, said in a statement.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky called the situation "very worrying."
Since the weekend, North Koreans have removed IAEA seals and impeded the functioning of surveillance cameras at the nuclear facilities north of Pyongyang, despite international appeals for restraint.
The IAEA has called its board of governors to an extraordinary meeting tentatively planned for Jan. 6. ElBaradei said he plans to tell the board that North Korea's actions have left the agency unable to verify "that there has been no diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices."
The board could refer the matter to the UN Security Council.
North Korea is believed to be pushing the dispute to the brink of crisis in order to extract concessions at the negotiating table. The North has repeatedly called for a non-aggression treaty with the United States, though economic benefits are also a priority for the destitute country.
However, the United States has ruled out talks unless North Korea, labelled part of an "axis of evil" by President George W. Bush, abandons nuclear development. The communist country, in turn, appears determined to ratchet up the tension by moving ahead with work at the reactor.
IAEA officials estimate it would take at least one month for North Korea to restart the reactor, which produces plutonium, the material used to make nuclear bombs, as a residue.
The UN agency, which has two inspectors at the site, is especially worried about a storage area holding 8,000 spent fuel rods and a laboratory used to reprocess the rods to get plutonium.
Intelligence experts say plutonium in the spent fuel rods could yield four or five nuclear weapons within months, and that North Korea already has one or two. However, the IAEA said there was no sign of North Korea activity at those two key facilities.
North Korea said it was restarting the reactor in order to provide electricity because Washington had reneged on a promise to provide energy sources.
"Our republic constantly maintains an anti-nuclear, peace-loving position," state-run Radio Pyongyang said.
ElBaradei disputed the North Korean claim, saying the reprocessing facility at Yongbyon was "irrelevant" to electricity production, and that North Korea had "no current legitimate peaceful use for plutonium."
U.S. officials have said the reactor itself would provide a negligible amount of electricity.
In Seoul, President Kim told a special cabinet meeting that the standoff should be resolved through dialogue.
"We can never go along with North Korea's nuclear weapons development," Kim said. "We must closely co-operate with the United States, Japan and other friendly countries to prevent the situation from further deteriorating into a crisis."
Kim's successor, Roh Moo-hyun, has also advocated dialogue to ease nuclear tensions since he was elected to the presidency last week.
In a deal with the United States in 1994, North Korea froze its suspected plutonium-based nuclear weapons program. Earlier this month, it decided to restart it after Washington and its allies halted fuel oil supplies as punishment for revelations in October that it had moved forward with a second nuclear weapons program that used enriched uranium.
On Thursday, Germany joined countries urging North Korea to immediately halt its activities at Yongbyon, calling the moves a "blatant violation" of its international obligations.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|