The Orlando Sentinel February 6, 2003
North Korea Says Nuclear Plant Has Been Restarted
U.S. Officials Voiced Fears That The Facility Will Be Used To Produce Plutonium For Weapons, Not To Make Electricity
By Barbara Demick, Foreign Correspondent
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Wednesday that it has carried out its vow to restart a small nuclear-power plant that U.S. officials suspect will be used to produce plutonium for weapons.
In a vaguely worded late-night statement distributed by the state-run news service, an unidentified official from North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the country is "now putting the operation of its nuclear facilities for the production of electricity on a normal footing after their restart." U.S. officials said turning on the reactor could be a serious development and condemned the action, if true. North Korea's action could not be independently confirmed.
"All they're doing by threatening to take such steps is to further isolate themselves from the rest of the international community. They know what needs to be done. They need to dismantle their nuclear weapons," a senior White House official said.
North Korea expelled U.N. weapons inspectors on New Year's Eve from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 55 miles north of Pyongyang, so it was difficult to determine if the country has started its reactor or if it is bluffing. Satellite photographs have detected activity at the site but cannot determine exactly what is happening.
The North Koreans promised in the statement that any nuclear activity "would be limited to the peaceful purposes including the production of electricity at the present stage."
But nuclear experts dismissed that claim because the only completed reactor in North Korea, an obsolete 5-megawatt model, is capable of producing barely enough electricity for its own operations. It can, however, produce as a byproduct weapons-grade plutonium.
The United States is concerned that North Korea is running the reactor for the main purpose of building a nuclear bomb that could be added to its existing arsenal -- the North Koreans are suspected of having one or two nuclear warheads -- or sold to terrorists abroad.
A more pedestrian but equally valid concern is that the nuclear reactor -- which had been mothballed for seven years -- could be a safety hazard. Under normal circumstances, a plant that is restarted should be inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The IAEA deplores the operation of nuclear facilities without safeguards inspection," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Vienna-based U.N. agency.
The agency's 35-nation board of governors is scheduled to meet Wednesday and is expected to send the dispute with North Korea to the U.N. Security Council, which could in turn levy economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
The North's announcement Wednesday came shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the Security Council about the need to disarm Iraq. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed suggestions that Pyongyang was trying to interfere with war preparations against Iraq.
"North Korea has a history of doing things like they did in the '90s, outside of the context of Iraq," he said.
U.S. officials have been downplaying the Korea situation and have insisted that they are seeking a diplomatic solution.
North and South Korea, which have slowly upgraded their ties since the 1994 agreement, marked another milestone Wednesday when construction officials inspected a new road leading across the Demilitarized Zone, which has separated the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The road is only the second route for overland passage; the other is at the Panmunjom truce village in the DMZ where delegates from North and South periodically talk. The new road stretches 18 miles over the DMZ along its easternmost section and connects the South to Mount Kumgang, a historic scenic destination in North Korea.
Later this month, the road is scheduled to open to carefully monitored trips by South Korean tourists.
While South Korea and North Korea take reconciliatory steps, the Japanese government is considering sending two destroyers equipped with the Aegis air-defense system to the Sea of Japan to watch for North Korean missile launches, Kyodo news service reported.
The report said Japan is becoming convinced that the communist state may resume test-firing ballistic missiles as part of brinkmanship diplomacy in the nuclear impasse. Deploying the destroyers would be an unusual show of military activity by Japan. In Seoul, nuclear experts were unable to confirm whether Pyongyang had restarted its reactor but said it would be technically possible depending on how well it had been maintained during the seven years it was shut down.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Mounting tensions. A North Korean soldier
(left) and a South Korean soldier stand guard Wednesday at the truce
village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, between
North Korea and South Korea.
YUN JAI-HYOUNG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOTO: Keeping watch. A U.S. soldier uses binoculars to look toward
the North in the DMZ on Wednesday.
YUN JAI-HYOUNG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOX: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
North Korea said it has restarted a small nuclear-power plant that
U.S. officials suspect will be used to produce plutonium for
weapons.
North Korean and South Korean construction officials inspected a
new road leading across the Demilitarized Zone
A former North Korean spy said 100,000 Japanese-born Koreans in
North Korea want to escape their "hell."
Japan said it may deploy two destroyers near North Korea to detect
possible missile launches.
MAP: NORTH KOREA REACTIVATES NUCLEAR FACILITIES
(locator map)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOTO: NORTH KOREA REACTIVATES NUCLEAR FACILITIES
SOURCES: North Korea announced Wednesday that it has reactived nuclear facilities previously frozen by a 1994 agreement. North Korean officials say that the facilities 'for the present stage' would be used only to produce electricity, but the United States says the facilities could produce new nuclear weapons.
SOURCES: The Associated Press; Center for Nonproliferation Studies; SpaceImaging Asia; GlobalSecurity.org; Internation Atomic Energy Agency; ESRI
Copyright © 2003, Sentinel Communications Co.
