A rchive Date
[ 28-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ North Korea ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/22/8113-ap.html
N. Korea expels nuke inspectors
By PAUL SHIN
Fri, December 27, 2002
SEOUL (AP) - North Korea ordered the expulsion Friday of UN nuclear inspectors and announced it will reactivate a laboratory able to produce weapons-grade plutonium. The UN nuclear agency said its investigators were "staying put" for now. The dramatic moves are certain to escalate tensions over Pyongyang's plan to unfreeze nuclear facilities shut down in a deal with the United States in 1994.
The inspectors were the last means that the International Atomic Energy Agency had to monitor whether the facilities are being used for nuclear weapons projects. Despite IAEA warnings, the North removed monitoring seals and surveillance cameras from the nuclear complex at Yongbyon earlier this week.
North Korea sent letters to Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based IAEA, demanding the removal of the inspectors and announcing the reopening of the reprocessing lab, the North's official news agency KCNA said Friday.
The UN nuclear watchdog resisted the demand.
"At the moment, our inspectors are staying put. They are on standby," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. The IAEA currently has three inspectors in North Korea.
ElBaradei sent a response to North Korea's atomic energy chief, Ri Je Son, demanding the North allow the inspectors to remain and install new seals and surveillance cameras at the site.
"The departure of inspectors would practically bring an end to our ability to monitor (North Korea's) nuclear program or assess its nature. This is one further step away from defusing the crisis," ElBaradei said in a statement.
North Korea is one of the more than 185 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which took effect in 1970. The North joined in 1985 but refused to accept IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities as required by the treaty.
The IAEA says North Korea is still a treaty member and must accept its inspections, but the North says its signatory status depends on its 1994 nuclear deal with Washington.
Pyongyang said it was reopening the lab to give "safe storage" to spent fuel rods that will come from the reactor it plans to restart. The IAEA did not comment on the report on the lab.
The lab can be used to extract weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods. North Korea already has 8,000 spent fuel rods in storage that experts say could yield four or five nuclear weapons within months. The KCNA statement, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, made no mention of those stockpiled rods.
Meanwhile, the IAEA said the North was moving fresh fuel rods into the five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon. By Friday, about 2,000 new rods had been moved to a storage facility at the site, up from 1,000 a day earlier, spokeswoman Fleming said.
The reactor needs 8,000 rods to be started, Fleming said.
North Korea claims that it is restarting the reactor to generate badly needed electricity after the United States and its allies cut off oil shipments.
The oil supplies were cut off in response to recent revelations that the North Koreans had been covertly pressing ahead with efforts to develop nuclear weapons in violation of the 1994 agreement.
But U.S. officials say that power to be obtained from the five-megawatt reactor is negligible, and North Korea is widely believed to be pushing the dispute to the brink of crisis in order to extract concessions at the negotiating table.
South Korea on Friday convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council to discuss the North's announcement.
Earlier, South Korea's President-elect Roh Moo-hyun said North Korea's defiant attitude could make it difficult for him to continue his predecessor's policy of seeking reconciliation with Pyongyang after he takes office in February.
"Whatever North Korea's rationale is in taking such actions, they are not beneficial to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, nor are they helpful for its own safety and prosperity," Roh said in a statement.
North Korea's government has repeatedly called for a nonaggression treaty with the United States, though economic benefits are also a priority for the destitute country.
The North's state media accused Washington on Friday of using the nuclear issue as a pretext for invasion. An English-language commentary by the KCNA referred to recent comments by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asserting that the United States is capable of waging war against Iraq and North Korea at the same time.
The United States "calls for disarming (North Korea) under the absurd pretext of its nuclear program and then launching a surprise attack on it to overthrow its political system," KCNA said.
During an inspection tour of U.S. and South Korean air force units, outgoing President Kim Dae-jung called for a stronger military alliance between the two allies to cope with threats raised by North Korea's nuclear development.
"We should be fully prepared for any emergencies and maintain a tighter joint defence system to back up a peaceful solution to North Korea's nuclear issue," he said.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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