N. Korea begins to harvest plutonium
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said yesterday that it had begun harvesting plutonium from spent fuel rods at its main nuclear plant to build up its atomic arsenal. The move, in defiance of tightening U.N. sanctions, threatened to further damage efforts to dismantle the communist nation's nuclear program.
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said yesterday that it had begun harvesting plutonium from spent fuel rods at its main nuclear plant to build up its atomic arsenal. The move, in defiance of tightening U.N. sanctions, threatened to further damage efforts to dismantle the communist nation's nuclear program.
"This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from hostile forces," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
North Korea carried out a nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium to make more than half a dozen atomic bombs. Five nations - the United States, Russia, China, South Korea, and Japan - have been negotiating for years on disarming the North, but it has walked away from the talks.
Yesterday's announcement, which could not be independently verified, came just hours after the United Nations had imposed new sanctions on three North Korean companies in response to the country's controversial launch of a rocket on April 5.
North Korea says it sent a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful bid to develop its space program. The U.N. Security Council called the rocket launch a violation of resolutions barring the North from missile-related activity, since the delivery systems for satellites and missiles are similar.
North Korea retaliated by quitting the disarmament talks and vowing to restart its atomic facilities. Last week, the North expelled international nuclear monitors from the main nuclear site at Yongbyon.
With eight of 11 steps toward disablement complete at Yongbyon, outside experts have said it could take months for the North to get the plant fully restarted.
Kim Yong Hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, called the newest move a bluff designed to pressure the United States into holding direct talks with the North outside the six-party process. Kim predicted the North would take further provocative steps as long as the United States continued to ignore it.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking in Iraq hours after North Korea's statement, said Washington hoped to resume talks with the communist country over its nuclear ambitions.
The disablement process culminated in the destruction of a cooling tower in June 2008. But the process halted weeks later because of a dispute with the United States over how to verify North Korea's past nuclear activities.
The latest round of talks in December failed to end the deadlock.
The new U.N. sanctions require nations that have dealings with three North Korean companies - the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., Korea Ryongbong General Corp., and Tanchon Commercial Bank - to freeze their assets.
