NKorea will not let nuclear samples out of country
12 Nov 2008 21:22:49 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds U.S. comment, purchase of 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil) SEOUL, Nov 12 (Reuters) - North Korea indicated on Wednesday it would not let international nuclear inspectors remove nuclear samples from its plant that makes arms-grade plutonium, a move which could hamper international disarmament efforts. Separately, the United States said it had purchased 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to be shipped to North Korea, although a U.S. official acknowledged that the Bush administration had disagreements with Pyongyang on verification. North Korea agreed last month to resume disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which makes plutonium, and allow in inspectors to verify claims it made about its atomic arms programme after the United States removed it from a terrorism blacklist and rolled back some trade sanctions. The United States estimates North Korea has produced about 50 kg (110 lbs) of plutonium, enough for about six to eight nuclear bombs. Experts see testing of samples as essential for verifying claims the secretive country made about its nuclear programme. "The method of verification will be ... confined to field visit(s)," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. Changing the written agreement was "an act of infringing upon sovereignty little short of seeking a house-search ...," the spokesman said. In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said North Korea was obligated by "understandings" reached last month to allow such sampling. He would not confirm that North Korea was barring experts from removing samples from Yongbyon. However, an Oct. 11 U.S. fact sheet on the understandings does not state that samples may be removed from the country. Rather, it says the two sides agreed "on the use of scientific procedures, including sampling and forensic activities." North Korea on Wednesday said it had slowed the pace of taking apart its three main facilities at Yongbyon because it felt it was not being rewarded in a timely manner. "The DPRK (North Korea) is reacting to the delayed fulfillment of the economic compensation by five parties with the measure of cutting down half the tempo of unloading the spent fuel rods on the principle of 'action for action,'" the spokesman said. ENERGY-STARVED As a part of a deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the energy-starved North was to receive one million tonnes of heavy fuel oil, or aid of equal value for freezing operations at Yongbyon. It has received about half that amount so far. Wood said the United States last week purchased 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil that would arrive in North Korea in two shipments, one in late November and the other in early December. Another U.S. official said that once this fuel had been provided, the United States and its allies would have handed over 550,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent. Most of the disablement steps, which were started last year and are aimed at taking a year to reverse, have been completed. One of the remaining steps is discharging irradiated fuel rods from the reactor at Yongbyon. Reclusive North Korea said separately on Wednesday it would close its land border with the South from next month, largely putting a stop to the few exchanges that exist between the states divided since the Cold War. The move follows growing anger in Pyongyang at the hard-line approach of the South's conservative government over its nuclear weapons programme. It accused its wealthy neighbour of taking their confrontation "beyond the danger level." (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington) (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Vicki Allen)
Firemen try to put out a fire at an indoor stadium in Jinan, Shandong province November 11, 2008. A second fire in four months engulfed the indoor stadium that is being ...
