N.Korea restores facilities at nuclear reactor: S.Korea

North Korea is restoring facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the source of weapons-grade plutonium in the past, South Korea's defence ministry said Tuesday. "North Korea is restoring nuclear facilities and continuing maintenance activities at Yongbyon," a spokesman quoted Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young as telling parliament on Monday. "It is engaged in new construction and large-scale excavation."
The foreign ministry said the South is closely monitoring the work.
"There are some activities going on but we have no information on what these are for," said spokesman Kim Young-Sun. "The government is watching closely the activities there and exchanging information with other countries."
An unidentified government official was quoted by Dong-A Ilbo newspaper as saying that two rectangular buildings were being built next to the site of a cooling tower demolished in 2008.
A private US research institute reported last week that new construction or excavation was under way at Yongbyon.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said tracks made by heavy machinery along with construction or excavation equipment were visible in satellite photos.
ISIS said there appeared to be ongoing construction of two small buildings next to the former tower, which the North blew up in June 2008 in front of foreign media to dramatise its commitment to nuclear disarmament.
The institute said the purpose of the work is unclear but bears watching.
The North's current plutonium stockpile is believed to be enough for six to eight bombs.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-Yon told the United Nations last week his country must strengthen its nuclear deterrent in the face of what he called threats from the United States.
The North shut down Yongbyon in July 2007 under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament accord. The following summer it destroyed the tower.
But six-party talks became bogged down in December 2008 over ways to verify the North's denuclearisation. In April 2009 Pyongyang abandoned the talks and said it had resumed reprocessing spent fuel rods to make plutonium.
In May 2009 it conducted an atomic weapons test, its second.
The North has indicated willingness in principle to return to the six-party forum chaired by its ally China. But it says it wants separate talks with the United States about signing a permanent peace treaty on the peninsula.
South Korea and the United States, which accuse the North of a deadly March attack on a South Korean warship, have responded warily. Japan and Russia are also members of the forum.

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