NORTH Korea says it will stop disabling its nuclear facilities and consider restoring the Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs, accusing the United States of violating a disarmament deal.
"We have decided to immediately suspend disabling our nuclear facilities," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying yesterday.
The US called the move a step backward and reiterated that North Korea must disable its
facilities before the country can be removed from a terrorism blacklist that restricts investment.
"It is a violation of their commitments," said Robert Wood, a state department spokesman.
Analysts said that given North Korea's deep reluctance to give up its nuclear weapons programme – the one powerful negotiating card it has with the outside world – its latest move was no big surprise.
"North Korea is trying to muddle through and delay as much as possible," said Lee Dong-bok, of the CSIS think tank in Seoul. "At the same time, this is a last-ditch effort trying to somehow influence US presidential politics."
Shen Dingli, a security expert at Fudan University in Shanghai, said he did not believe North Korea ever intended to abandon its nuclear weapons capability and noted that the country had continued its nuclear programme through the talks.
"Their goal remains developing and keeping nuclear weapons," he said.
Disablement work that started in 2007 at Yongbyon has mostly been completed. It was aimed at making it impossible for operations to resume for at least a year.
In June, North Korea toppled the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing reactor to show its commitment to the nuclear deal.
The last remaining stage of the planned disabling of Yongbyon was to be the unloading of irradiated rods.
The full article contains 295 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
