The US said on Friday that North Korea has stepped up disablement of a nuclear reactor it had been threatening to reactivate, a sign of progress in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks that had been on the verge of collapse.
US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the North has replaced seals, reinstalled surveillance and restored equipment that had been removed at the Yongbyon plutonium reprocessing plant.
“In addition to that, they have removed more rods from the reactor,” he said. “So, on the reactor, they have actually gone beyond where they were prior to their reversing the disablement.”
McCormack, quoting US officials in North Korea, said North Korean specialists have removed 60 percent of the fuel rods from the reactor. Fuel rods can be processed to obtain plutonium for nuclear bombs.
The progress at Yongbyon came after North Korea ended a two-month boycott of a nuclear disarmament deal following the US’ removal of the country from a terrorism blacklist as an incentive.
Separately, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates met at the Pentagon with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee, a member of conservative, pro-US President Lee Myung-bak’s administration.
Asked about reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s poor health could lead to a crisis, Lee, speaking through an interpreter, said: “We should probably not pay too much attention to [Kim Jong-il’s] health. I believe he’s probably enjoying all this newfound attention, and, if we show him too much attention, then we might spoil him.”
He said that US and South Korean intelligence officials are closely monitoring Kim’s health, which has “significant implications” on regional security. Although Kim has not been seen in public lately, Lee said, both the US and South Korea estimate that Kim still has control over his administration.
Gates said the US and South Korea are in close communication as they watch the North. He also said that he recommitted to Lee to keep the US force level in South Korea at 28,500.
At the State Department, McCormack said “there is still work to be done” at the North’s reprocessing and fuel fabrication factories.
But, he said, he expected nuclear talks among China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the US would resume “in the coming period of time.”
He would not discuss specifics because host China has not announced the meeting.
On Tuesday, the North allowed UN monitors back into the nuclear site. A diplomat in Vienna familiar with the IAEA’s work in the North said the agency’s three-member team had resumed monitoring on Tuesday.
North Korea stopped disabling Yongbyon in anger over US demands that Pyongyang accept a plan to verify its accounting of nuclear programs as a condition for removal from the terrorism list. The North was threatening to reactivate Yongbyon before the US agreed to remove it from the list.
Six-nation nuclear talks took on a new tone of urgency after North Korea set off a test nuclear blast in 2006. Pyongyang then agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and other concessions, though negotiations have since been beset by deadlock and acrimony.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS