If North Korea is indeed constructing a light-water nuclear reactor, it would be in contravention to U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the aspiring nuclear power from any nuclear work, South Korea's top diplomat said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 15).
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said to journalists,"that would be running counter to U.N. resolutions and it is obvious that it wouldn't be conducive to the current situation," the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Siegfried Hecker, a former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, this week said the North was building the experimental reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Hecker was returning from a trip to the isolated state when he made the remarks.
Kim said additional time is required to probe Hecker's report as the Stalinist state has no background in constructing light-water reactors.
He also disputed Pyongyang's repeated assertion that it has the right to develop civilian atomic power, saying the North gave up that right when it withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 (Yonhap News Agency I, Nov. 15).
Responding to the light-water reactor report, the U.S. State Department yesterday again called on Pyongyang to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization, Yonhap reported.
"We expect North Korea to live up to its international obligations," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "As it does, we are prepared to have conversations with North Korea about its long-term requirements. But first and foremost, North Korea has to live up to its stated commitment" (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency II, Nov. 15).
The Obama administration has refused calls to return to the stalled six-nation talks -- which also involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, and Russia -- until Pyongyang shows it is sincere about nuclear disarmament. Washington fears a repeat performance from the North whereby Pyongyang takes some limited steps toward denuclearization only to reverse course once it has extracted some international concessions.
North Korea pulled out of nuclear negotiations in April 2009 and one month later detonated its second nuclear test device. That action earned it heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions that are thought to have left the already impoverished nation badly weakened.
Meanwhile, North Korea's state-controlled media yesterday announced former U.S. State Department official Morton Abramowitz had traveled to Pyongyang with a retinue of U.S. experts on North Korea. No further information was provided, Yonhap reported (Yonhap News Agency III, Nov. 15).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20101116_4622.php
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said to journalists,"that would be running counter to U.N. resolutions and it is obvious that it wouldn't be conducive to the current situation," the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Siegfried Hecker, a former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, this week said the North was building the experimental reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Hecker was returning from a trip to the isolated state when he made the remarks.
Kim said additional time is required to probe Hecker's report as the Stalinist state has no background in constructing light-water reactors.
He also disputed Pyongyang's repeated assertion that it has the right to develop civilian atomic power, saying the North gave up that right when it withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 (Yonhap News Agency I, Nov. 15).
Responding to the light-water reactor report, the U.S. State Department yesterday again called on Pyongyang to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization, Yonhap reported.
"We expect North Korea to live up to its international obligations," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "As it does, we are prepared to have conversations with North Korea about its long-term requirements. But first and foremost, North Korea has to live up to its stated commitment" (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency II, Nov. 15).
The Obama administration has refused calls to return to the stalled six-nation talks -- which also involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, and Russia -- until Pyongyang shows it is sincere about nuclear disarmament. Washington fears a repeat performance from the North whereby Pyongyang takes some limited steps toward denuclearization only to reverse course once it has extracted some international concessions.
North Korea pulled out of nuclear negotiations in April 2009 and one month later detonated its second nuclear test device. That action earned it heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions that are thought to have left the already impoverished nation badly weakened.
Meanwhile, North Korea's state-controlled media yesterday announced former U.S. State Department official Morton Abramowitz had traveled to Pyongyang with a retinue of U.S. experts on North Korea. No further information was provided, Yonhap reported (Yonhap News Agency III, Nov. 15).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20101116_4622.php
