Seoul: North Korea announced Tuesday it has produced more plutonium for its atomic weapons programme, putting further pressure on the United States to start direct talks.
The communist country “successfully completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods by the end of August” at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
“Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent,” it said.
The comments indicated growing impatience at Washington’s delay in accepting Pyongyang’s offer of high-level bilateral talks to end the nuclear standoff.
On Monday its foreign ministry pressed the United States to agree to such talks, and said these could lead to a resumption of stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations.
“If the US is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the DPRK (North Korea), it will go its own way,” the ministry added.
The US reacted angrily to the announcement, saying North Korea’s plutonium production for atomic weapons “runs counter” to its own statements and “violates” UN Security Council resolutions.
Experts believe the 8,000 spent reactor fuel rods could produce enough plutonium for one or two nuclear bombs, in addition to the North’s current stockpile which could perhaps be used to create six to eight weapons.
“It certainly runs counter to the commitment that they made in 2005, and it violates UN Security Council resolutions,” US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
But he declined to say whether he believed the announcement contributed to tension with North Korea.
“What we’re focused on with North Korea is getting to the point where we can relaunch the six-party talks, which will get us to our ultimate goal, which is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
The North quit the six-party talks in April after the United Nations censured its long-range rocket launch, and vowed to restart the nuclear programme which it shut down under a 2007 six-party pact.
It conducted an atomic weapons test in May, the second since 2006.
In September the North also said it was in the final stages of an experimental highly enriched uranium programme — a second way to make atomic weapons.
KCNA in a separate report Tuesday said the North was working hard to expand production of mineral resources including uranium. It said the uranium was intended to fuel a light-water reactor which is to be constructed.
Seoul officials quoted by Yonhap news agency confirmed Monday that the North had apparently reopened the plutonium reprocessing plant.
After months of bellicose moves including a series of missile tests, the North in August began making peace overtures and invited the US special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, to visit Pyongyang.
In early October leader Kim Jong-Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao his country was ready to return to six-party negotiations, but only after it had talked directly to the United States to improve “hostile relations.”
The North has long sought direct talks with the United States and is unenthusiastic about the multilateral framework which also involves South Korea
, China, Russia and Japan.
Washington says it is open to such talks but these would be limited to bringing Pyongyang back to the six-party framework. It says it has made no decision on any visit by Bosworth.
But Russia said on Tuesday it was unrealistic for North Korea to seek improved ties with Washington, adding that Pyongyang would be better off returning to the negotiating table for six-party talks.
Many analysts suspect the North wants US recognition as a nuclear-armed state, possibly in return for guarantees of non-proliferation. Washington says it will never recognise a nuclear-armed North.
Pyongyang could also be trying to ease the impact of tougher United Nations sanctions imposed after the latest nuclear test.
China — the North’s sole major ally, leading trade partner and top energy supplier — is often seen as crucial in pressuring the North.
But the International Crisis Group, in a report Tuesday, said Beijing was reluctant to tighten the screws on Pyongyang for fear of destabilising its regime and prompting a flood of refugees across the border.
