A plant that helped to provide North Korea with weapon-grade plutonium appears to have been returned to operational status, Kyodo News reported today (see GSN, Oct. 30).
(Nov. 2) -
A plutonium laboratory at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility, shown in 2007. The nation has prepared the plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon to resume operations, a South Korean defense official said (U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory photo).
Pyongyang closed the facility at its Yongbyon nuclear complex under the terms of a denuclearization deal struck with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. Ultimately, it was to have been disabled and then dismantled.
However, the North said last spring that it was through with the six-party process after being criticized at the United Nations for an April rocket launch. It said subsequently that it would resume plutonium operations.
"The [plutonium] reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier conditions, a high-level South Korean defense official told the Yonhap News Agency. Satellite images of the factory showed a regular stream of workers moving to and from the facility.
"Activities involving people and vehicles have been consistent for months," said the official. "I wouldn't be surprised if North Korea has started to reprocess spent fuel rods."
A second official said: "Evidence points to the North having put Yongbyon back to work" (Kyodo News I/Breitbart.com, Nov. 2).
The Stalinist state said yesterday its nuclear operations would continue forward if the United States did not respond to its offer of direct talks, the Korea Herald reported.
"It is time for the United States to make a decision as we have been generous enough to show our position that we could take part in multilateral negotiations including the six-way talks after direct talks with Washington, said a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in a report by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency.
"If the United States isn't ready to sit down face-to-face with us, we will go our own way," said the official.
The spokesman shrugged off any importance to the first official meetings between Pyongyang and the Obama administration. North Korean nuclear negotiator Ri Gun met late last month with U.S. envoy Sung Kim in New York and later in San Diego.
"The contact was not a preliminary meeting for talks between North Korea and the United States," said the spokesman. "So there was no discussion on substantial issues related to the bilateral dialogue."
During his meeting with Kim, Ri is believed to have reaffirmed Pyongyang's offer to host U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth. Washington has said it was open to such a meeting, but only as a means to reignite the six-party talks (Kim So-hyun, Korea Herald, Nov. 2).
A high-level diplomat in Seoul said it is not known if North Korea would actually ever give up its nuclear ambitions, Reuters reported.
"North Korea's financial plight likely has led to its charm offensive but we don't know if that means it is ready to make major concessions on its nuclear arms plans," said the source (Jack Kim, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Nov. 1).
Meanwhile, official work began Friday for a U.N. expert panel established to support the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea, Kyodo reported.
Six out of seven panel members took part in a meeting called by the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee. The panel is expected to carry out supplementary work in applying the penalties decided upon by the sanctions committee after North Korea carried out its second nuclear test in May.
Panel members had a "good" first meeting, said Japan's representative, nonproliferation expert Masahiko Asada,.
The seven members of the panel were chosen from the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- and from Japan and South Korea (Kyodo News II/Breitbart.com, Oct. 30).
A report issued today questions the effectiveness of other United Nations sanctions against North Korea, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Seoul-based Korea Institute for International Economic Policy report asserts that U.N. Resolution 1695 and Resolution 1718 have had little effect on the North's international trade.
Both resolutions forbid the sale of materials and equipment that could be used in the production of missiles. All trade having to do with parts that could be used to build weapons of mass destruction was also banned (see GSN, Oct. 26, 2006).
Foreign countries have been given permission to interdict North Korean vessels believed to be carrying outlawed cargo.
"Analysis of trade activities showed that export and import volume of the communist country may have increased after restrictions were imposed," the report says.
It adds: "The lack of effectiveness can be attributed to the inability of the sanctions to gain wide participation among U.N. members" (Yonhap News Agency, Nov. 2).