IAEA confirms North Korea has shut down main nuclear reactor

BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
July 17, 2007

North Korea has claimed that it has closed down its main nuclear reactor. The decision helps avoid a confrontation with the United States and may represent the first solid step towards nuclear disarmament.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said his inspectors have confirmed that North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. However, ElBaradei said North Korea still has a long way to go before its nuclear arsenal is dismantled.

North Korea’s decision to close down the nuclear facility at Yongbyon came after South Korea delivered 6,200 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to North Korea, the first batch of a 950,000-tonne allotment agreed to in February 2007.

Pyongyang’s decision is in line with a disarmament plan thrashed out in February 2007, following North Korea’s first underground nuclear weapon test in October 2006, which had set off an international outcry.

The United States responded to the shutdown by stressing that there is a need for faster progress toward the complete disablement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities within the next six months.

According to the terms of the February 2007 agreement – reached in six-party talks between the United States, North Korea, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea – North Korea should remove the fuel rods from Yongbyon, seal the reactor with a reinforced concrete cap and install cameras to provide continuous surveillance of the facility.

Pyongyang is also required to provide information about all of its nuclear programs, including the uranium enrichment program that the United States believes was used to make the nuclear weapon that was tested in 2006.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il has denied that such a program exists, but the Bush Administration said it was determined to push the issue and stressed that the US expects North Korea to “come clean” about the uranium enrichment program as an essential condition for completing the process begun by the six-party talks.

Pyongyang responded to the US remarks by emphasising that further implementation of the February 2007 accord will depend on steps taken by the United States and Japan, which is linking improved relations to the unsolved abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea.

North Korea wants to be removed from the US list of terrorist nations and the lifting of all remaining economic sanctions, leading to normalisation of relations with Washington.

South Korea’s nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo described North Korea’s move as a milestone in the relationship between the two countries. North Korea and South Korea are still technically at war because the 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.

If the process continues smoothly, it could pave the way for a peaceful solution to the international standoff with Iran over its nuclear weapons.

There is considerable optimism in Seoul, capital of South Korea, that the relationship with Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, is beginning to improve. South Korean military engineers have complete the removal of 15 miles of steel fences from beaches on the country’s east coast, which had been erected to keep North Korean commandos at bay.