Alarm over North Korea move to ‘bolster nuclear arsenal’

NORTH Korea said yesterday that it has completed removing spent fuel rods from an atomic reactor, enabling it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium. The move comes amid deadlocked talks over its nuclear programme.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country had successfully finished removing 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at its Yongbyon complex, which was shut down last month, so it can “bolster its nuclear arsenal”.

North Korea kicked out international nuclear inspectors in late 2002, making it impossible to verify the claim.

South Korean media said the fuel rods would likely yield material for a couple of bombs. To get the plutonium, the rods would need to cool and then be reprocessed, which takes months.

The announcement came a day after China rejected using sanctions to prod Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks, with a spokesman saying Beijing’s relations with its neighbour should be kept separate.

The talks have been stalled since June, with Pyongyang insisting it won’t return until Washington drops its hostile policy. North Korea says the US is planning an invasion, a claim Washington denies.

North Korea - which claims it already has at least one atomic weapon - is boosting its arsenal “for the defensive purpose of coping with the prevailing situation”, the unnamed North Korean spokesman said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed “serious concern” at the development.

“North Korea should immediately halt actions that have a negative impact” on efforts to resume disarmament talks, the ministry said. “We strongly urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks without delay.”

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi noted North Korea has made such statements in the past to bolster its negotiating position. “We must work to show that North Korea will benefit the most from returning quickly to the six-nation talks and disposing of its nuclear programme,” he told reporters.

The North Korean spokesman reiterated Pyongyang’s desire to have a self-reliant nuclear power industry. He said the country already announced plans to operate its 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, 50 miles north of Pyongyang, and resume construction on a bigger reactor there because the US pulled out of a 1994 deal.

US officials accused the North of running a secret uranium enrichment programme in 2002 in violation of the earlier deal made under the Clinton administration. Under that deal, North Korea agreed to forego nuclear weapons’ development in exchange for energy aid and the construction of nuclear reactors that couldn’t be diverted for weapons’ use.

Worries also have grown that the North is preparing a nuclear test, with US officials saying last week that spy satellites show activity in north-eastern Kilju - including tunnel digging.

Yesterday, the North’s main newspaper alleged the US was making a “fuss” by spreading reports of alleged test preparations. The countries taking part in the nuclear talks are North Korea, the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.