Posted on: Friday, December 27, 2002
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
S. Korea warns Pyongyang on restart of reactor
By Christopher Torchia
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun warned the North today that reactivating a nuclear reactor could endanger the communist state's own safety.
He added that 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," Roh said in a statement.
Yesterday the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said North Korea's moves to restart the nuclear reactor that U.S. officials believe was used to make one or two atomic bombs amount to "nuclear brinkmanship" and are "very worrying."
North Korea, however, said it was "peace-loving" and had no plans to develop weapons at the site.
Also yesterday, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said his nation will never tolerate its neighbor'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 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, Sen. Richard Lugar, incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.
Australia today shelved plans to open an embassy in North Korea amid the rising tensions linked to Pyongyang's moves to reactivate its nuclear weapons program.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australia has told North Korea that restoring full diplomatic links could not proceed while it violates nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
North Korean workers have moved 1,000 fresh fuel rods to a storage site near the Soviet-designed, 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon that was frozen in a deal with Washington that ended the 1994 crisis, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said. A total of 8,000 such rods is needed to start the reactor.
"Moving towards restarting its nuclear facilities without appropriate safeguards, and towards producing plutonium raises serious nonproliferation concerns and is tantamount to nuclear brinkmanship," Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the Vienna, Austria-based agency, said in a statement.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky called the situation "very worrying."
Since the weekend, North Koreans have removed U.N. 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."
North Korea is believed to be pushing the dispute to the brink of crisis to extract concessions at the negotiating table. The North has repeatedly called for a nonaggression 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 abandons nuclear development.
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 U.N. 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.
