Nuclear Program

North Korea ready to restart nuclear site

North Korea announced Thursday that it is preparing to restart the facility that produced its atomic bomb, indicating that it plans to pull out of an international deal to end its nuclear program.

North Korea told the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, that it was stopping the process of disabling its main nuclear site and would bar international inspectors from the Yongbyon facility, the agency said.

Pyongyang "informed IAEA inspectors that effective immediately access to facilities at Yongbyon would no longer be permitted," the United Nations nuclear agency said. North Korea "also stated that it has stopped its disablement work," the nuclear agency said in a statement.

The agency said its small inspection team would remain on the site until told otherwise by the North Korean authorities.

 Pyongyang barred agency personnel from its plutonium reprocessing facility at Yongbyon last month after telling them to remove International Atomic Energy Agency seals from the plant in a reversal of its pledge to disable its nuclear program in return for diplomatic concessions and offers of energy aid.

However, the statement Thursday was the clearest indication to date that the North planned to abrogate the deal, said a senior diplomat linked to the International Atomic Energy Agency who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media.

The North was to eventually dismantle the complex in return for diplomatic concessions and energy aid equivalent to one million tons of oil under a deal in February 2007 with the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

Asked about the announcement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington: "Let's just wait and see over the next several days. We're reviewing the situation and I am talking to my colleagues and when we have an announcement, we'll have an announcement."

Also Thursday, North Korea warned South Korea against sending warships into its waters, as it reportedly shifted an arsenal of missiles to a nearby island for more test launches.

The North's naval command accused the South of encroaching on its territory around the disputed sea border off Korea's west coast and threatened to take unspecified "decisive action" unless Seoul stops infiltrating its waters.

"There is always a limit to patience," the North Korean Navy said in a statement carried by the regime's official Korean Central News Agency.

(Published by The Herald Tribune - October 9, 2008)