(For related story, see KOREA-NORTH or click on [ID:nSP328382]) Sept 5 (Reuters) - North Korea has made moves to re-assemble its Soviet-era nuclear plant that can make arms-grade plutonium, setting back a disarmament-for-aid deal that the impoverished state struck with five regional powers. The following is a brief chronology of how the tide turned on the implementation of the nuclear deal: June 26 - North Korea presents a long-delayed list of its nuclear arms programmes. Under the deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States it was supposed to provide the declaration at the end of 2007. Analysts see problems because the declaration does not address North Korea's nuclear weaponry or U.S. suspicions of Pyongyang having a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons and proliferating technology to Syria. North Korea also reports that it has produced less plutonium than U.S. officials had estimated. - United States says it will start the 45-day process to take North Korea off its terrorism blacklist and remove trade sanctions. June 27 - North Korea topples the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor. June 30 - First part of pledged 500,000 tonnes of U.S. food aid to North Korea arrives. July 4 - North Korea says it has fulfilled obligations under nuclear deal and calls on others to live up to their end. July 8 - New round of six-party talks open in Beijing. Envoys seeks ways to verify claims made in nuclear list. July 12 - North Korea pledges to complete disabling Yongbyon by the end of October as six-way talks end. July 23 - Foreign ministers from six countries in nuclear deal hold first meeting during regional forum in Singapore. Aug 11 - United States says it will not take North Korea off terrorism blacklist. Bush administration later says it will wait until an adequate verification protocol is reached. Aug 18 - North Korean expresses anger at not being removed from the terrorism list, accuses Washington of "sinister intentions". - United States and South Korean forces start joint military drills, angering North Korea, which says exercises threaten nuclear deal and undermine its trust in Washington. Aug 20 - North Korea says it saw as "unjust" calls for Pyongyang to verify claims it made in the declaration. Aug 26 - North Korea says it would stop disabling Yongbyon and accused the United States of violating nuclear deal. Sept 3 - U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea has taken initial steps to restart Yongbyon, a process experts say could take a year or more. Sept 5 - South Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Sook to meet U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing to discuss how to respond to North Korea's latest moves. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and David Fogarty)
Local residents are seen outside a destroyed house in the main South Ossetian city Tskhinvali September 4, 2008. Russia's conflict with Georgia has helped President Dmitry Medvedev emerge from the shadow ...
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