North Korea planned to resume dismantling its nuclear program yesterday for the first time in two months, days after the US removed the communist regime from a terrorism blacklist as a reward under a disarmament pact.
Pyongyang has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it would restart work to disable the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors to resume their activity, according to a restricted IAEA document to the agency’s 35 board members obtained by The Associated Press.
Separately, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said agency inspectors “will also now be permitted to reapply the containment and surveillance measures at the reprocessing facility.”
That meant agency seals taken off the plant and monitoring cameras recently removed at the North’s orders would be restored.
Two months ago 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 a blacklist of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism.
Up to late last week, the North had threatened to reactivate the plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon.
But the North and the US found a compromise on the verification row following a trip to Pyongyang by chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and Washington announced on Saturday its removal of the North from the terror list.
In delisting North Korea on Saturday, Washington said Pyongyang had agreed to all its nuclear inspection demands.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the resolution of the dispute. His spokeswoman, Michelle Montas, said Ban considered it “another step towards a verifiable non-nuclear Korean Peninsula.”
China also hailed the progress and pledged to move the denuclearization process forward as host of the nuclear disarmament talks that also involve Japan, the two Koreas, the US and Russia.
“Promoting the six-party talks process serves the common interests of the involved parties,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said in a statement issued late on Monday.
“China appreciates the constructive efforts made by the concerned parties.”
North Korea alarmed the world in 2006 by setting off a test nuclear blast. It then agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and other concessions.
The regime began disabling Yongbyon in November and blew up a cooling tower in June in a dramatic display of its determination to carry out the process. Just steps away from completing the second phase of the three-part process, Pyongyang abruptly reversed course and stopped disabling the plant, until this week.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS