AllHeadlineNews January 01, 2008
North Korea Quiet on 'Missing' Nuclear Deadline
By Einnor Mendoza
Pyongyang, North Korea (AHN) - North Korea has failed to acknowledge it missed its Dec. 31, 2007 deadline to disclose full details about its nuclear program.
BBC News reported that Pyongyang had, however, stressed economic issues in its annual New Year editorial, as well as made a commitment to improve lives of its citizens. It also repeated its call for the ending of the United States' "hostile policy."
In February 2007, North Korea had agreed after a four-year negotiation - with China, Japan, the United States, Russia, and South Korea - to disclose its nuclear program, and close its nuclear facility in exchange for economic aids and diplomatic concessions, BBC News added.
South Korea, U.S., and Japan have already expressed disappointment over Pyongyang's not meeting the deadline, according to BBC News.
The Yongbyon nuclear facility, located some 60 miles (100 km) north of Pyongyang, was built in the 1960s. It is said to produce plutonium.
The North Korean nuclear weapons program began in the 1980s, reported Globalsecurity.org.
In 2005, the Defense Intelligence Agency, in 2005, said it believes North Korea may already have produced 12 to 15 nuclear weapons as of then, as AHN has reported.
© Copyright 2008, AHN Media Corp
