Nuclear weapons ‘won’t be tolerated’

SOUTH KOREA’s president yesterday said his nation would never tolerate North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons, as the communist nation began moving fresh fuel rods to a mothballed nuclear reactor.

President Kim Dae-jung told a special Cabinet meeting, however, that the standoff should be resolved through dialogue, despite deepening concerns that North Korea will restart facilities that experts say could produce nuclear weapons within months.

“We can never go along with North Korea’s nuclear weapons development,” Kim said in remarks released to the press by his spokeswoman, Park Sun-sook. “We must closely cooperate with the United States, Japan and other friendly countries to prevent the situation from further deteriorating into a crisis.”