North Korea removes reactor monitoring equipment

NORTH KOREA, defying world opinion, said yesterday that it had begun removing UN monitoring equipment from a nuclear reactor at the centre of the communist state’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang’s announcement came after the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, said North Korea had disabled surveillance devices the agency had placed at the Yongbyon research reactor, which the United Nations believes was used to make plutonium capable of use in warheads.

The IAEA said that North Korea had taken further action on Sunday to disrupt the operation of IAEA equipment at the five-megawatt reactor, including the pond for storing some 8,000 spent irradiated fuel rods.

“As the spent fuel contains a significant amount of plutonium, North Korea’s action is of great non-proliferation concern and represents a further disruption of the IAEA’s ability to apply safeguards in the DPRK (North Korea),” IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.

The Yongbyon plant had been closed under a 1994 agreement with the United States in which North Korea froze its reactors in exchange for shipments of oil and the construction of more proliferation-proof reactors.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said it began removing the surveillance devices after the UN nuclear watchdog had not acted on Pyongyang’s demand early this month to take the equipment away to allow the reactor to restart.

“This situation compelled the DPRK (North Korea) to immediately start the work of removing the seals and monitoring cameras from the frozen nuclear facilities for their normal operation to produce electricity,” it said.

The United States, Japan and South Korea urged North Korea to maintain the freeze on its nuclear facilities. France said it regretted Pyongyang's decision.

Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke by telephone with his counterparts from China, South Korea and Russia on Saturday, and with his opposite number from Japan on Sunday, said State Department spokesman Lou Fintor. He said the United States was seeking a peaceful solution.

“Let me underscore the United States will not enter into dialogue in response to threats or broken commitments,” he said earlier on Sunday.

North Korea, which the United States has labelled part of an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran, vowed to maintain a hardline stance. Pyongyang accused the United States and Japan of trying to isolate the communist state.