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North Korea confirms reactor shutdown
AFP Graphic
A graphic showing North Korea's nuclear sites. US chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said UN inspectors will start verifying early Sunday whether North Korea has shut down its main nuclear reactor.By Jun Kwanwoo
AFP
SEOUL
Petroleumworld.com 07 16 07North Korea confirmed Sunday that it had shut down its Yongbyon atomic reactor under UN supervision, the first step in a process designed to rid the communist state of nuclear weapons.
The shutdown of Yongbyon, which produces plutonium for nuclear weapons, was the first step taken by Pyongyang toward ending its atomic programme since 2002, and the first phase of a six-nation disarmament deal reached in February.
" We shut down the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and allowed the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) personnel to monitor it on the 14th, when the first shipment out of 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil arrived," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency.
The agency's dispatch, sent via e-mail to AFP, was the first report from Pyongyang of the closure. The US State Department said earlier it had been informed by the North's UN mission of the shutdown.
It would be the first time that Yongbyon has been closed as a political act since a previous disarmament deal collapsed in late 2002. Enough plutonium for several more bombs is thought to have been extracted since then.
The hardline communist state shocked the world last October with its first atomic bomb test, prompting international condemnation and tough sanctions.
" We have fulfilled our promises in advance... which shows our commitment to the implementation of the agreement," the spokesman told KCNA.
The North had earlier insisted on first receiving all 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil promised in compensation for the shutdown under the February accord.
The first shipment of 6,200 tonnes arrived early Saturday in the North from South Korea. A 10-strong team of inspectors from the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, landed the same day.
The inspectors were to start verifying the closure on Sunday, Christopher Hill, US chief negotiator to the six-party talks, told reporters in Japan.
Hill was due in Seoul later Sunday for more consultations before six-party talks -- which began in 2003 -- resume Wednesday in Beijing. The forum groups the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The State Department welcomed reports of the shutdown and said it looked forward to IAEA verification and monitoring.
" With the six-party talks negotiators set to meet July 18 in Beijing, we look forward to working with all parties to make rapid progress in implementing the next phase," said spokesman Sean McCormack.
South Korea's foreign ministry described the news as "encouraging progress."
Hill was careful to stress the closure is just the start.
" This is only a meaningful step in so far as it will be followed by other steps," he told reporters in the Japanese resort town of Hakone.
He said the UN inspection team should get reports later Sunday on the situation at Yongbyon, noting: "I think by the end of today, they will be able to give us reports on the five facilities (including the reactor)."
The North will receive another 950,000 tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid, plus major diplomatic benefits and security guarantees, if it goes on to declare all nuclear programmes and permanently disable all nuclear facilities.
The US and its partners say "facilities" must include weapons and plutonium stockpiles even though weapons are not specifically mentioned in the February agreement.
Washington, which envisages diplomatic relations and a formal peace pact if the North fulfils all commitments, wants to know the status of an alleged highly enriched uranium (HEU) programme separate to the plutonium operation.
US allegations in 2002 of the secret HEU programme, denied by the North, led to the suspension of fuel oil shipments and the collapse of a bilateral deal which had kept Yongbyon shut since 1994.
The North's foreign ministry spokesman said the IAEA activities in Yongbyon did not constitute an inspection and would be limited to verification and monitoring the shutdown.
The IAEA team, which brought one tonne of monitoring equipment, was the first visit by working inspectors since North Korea expelled the UN agency in December 2002 and re-started Yongbyon after an eight-year shutdown.
The Soviet-era reactor has produced enough plutonium to make 5-12 bombs since it began operating in 1987, according to varying estimates.
AFP 15 0937 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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