World

North Korea 'to restore reactor'

by Dave Keating | September 19, 2008 at 02:40 am | 127 views | 2 comments | 14 recommendations

Bush Press Conference on North Korea's Nuclear Declaration

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With Kim Jong Il possibly near death's door, it looks like those around him assuming power could be hard-liners. The country has announced it is reversing the dismantling of a nuclear reactor and making preperations to restart it. The threats are likely an attempt to get further rewards from the US. One wonders if this is an endless cycle.

North Korea has stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and is making "thorough preparations" to restart it, a foreign ministry official has said.

Hyun Hak-bong said that Pyongyang had suspended work to put the plant out of action because the US had not fulfilled its part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.

When asked when it would be restored, he said: "You'll come to know soon."

Last month, North Korea said Washington had not removed it as promised from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Pyongyang was expecting to be removed after finally submitting a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities to the six-party talks in June, in accordance with the disarmament deal it signed in 2007.