North Korea to resume disabling nuclear plants
Sunday 12 October 2008
North Korean officials have announced they will resume work to disable the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon after the US took the reclusive country off the terrorism blacklist.
Sunday 12 October 2008
By AFPNorth Korea on Sunday welcomed the US decision to drop it from a terrorism blacklist and said it would resume disabling its nuclear plants.
"We welcome the US which has honoured its commitment to delist the DPRK (North Korea) as 'a state sponsor of terrorism'," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency.
"The DPRK decided to resume the disablement of nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and allow the inspectors of the US and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to perform their duties."
The US announced Saturday that it had removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after reaching an agreement on how to verify its nuclear programme.
The North's spokesman said Sunday that the agreement relates to "the verification of objects of the disablement of nuclear facilities" -- a reference to its declared plutonium-producing operation at Yongbyon.
He also said future work would depend on whether the delisting "actually takes effect" and whether other signatories to a six-nation disarmament accord complete delivery of promised energy aid.
The latest US-North Korean deal allows for outside experts to visit both declared and undeclared sites in North Korea, take and remove samples and equipment for analysis, view documents and interview staff, US officials said.
However, visits to sites not included in the North's nuclear declaration delivered in June will require "mutual consent."
The row over verification and delisting had left the hard-won 2007 accord on disarmament close to collapse, with the North -- which tested a nuclear device for the first time in October 2006 -- threatening to restart Yongbyon.
The talks group the two Koreas with the United States, Russia, China and Japan.
12/10/2008 19:45:21 Alert a moderator
Can the US be trusted?
By Kirk Hetfield - Boston
The question is not can north korea fulfill it's end of the deal, but can America?
Afterall, Pyongyang is eager to normalize relations, it's in their interest, they need the capital.
But the US previously did not keep up it's end of the deal, on other ocassions. This gives pyongyang one option only: Develop nukes, to counteract the threat posed by South Korean troops, still under the direct command of a US general. If America keeps up it's end of the deal, comrade Kim can put this great nation forward, and give "bibimbap" for all his people.