DPRK expels IAEA monitors from plant

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has expelled UN monitors from its plutonium-making nuclear plant, UN officials said yesterday, accelerating moves to restart an atom bomb project it had renounced under a disarmament-for-aid deal.

DPRK had said on Friday it was working to reactivate the sprawling Yongbyon reactor complex, which it had been dismantling since last November under a disarmament-for-aid deal with five powers that has gone awry.

Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency's head of non-proliferation safeguards, revealed the major setback in a special briefing to a closed meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna.

Access denied

"There are no more seals and surveillance equipment in place at the (plutonium) reprocessing facility," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, referring to the most proliferation-sensitive installation at Yongbyon.

"(DPRK) further stated that from here on, IAEA inspectors will have no further access to the reprocessing plant," she said, summarizing Heinonen's remarks.

"(DPRK) also informed IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time," Fleming told reporters outside the meeting.

Western diplomats and nuclear analysts have said DPRK would need at least several months and probably more time to bring the largely broken up installation back on line.

Diplomats close to the IAEA said three monitors had been ousted from positions at the plutonium facility but were still observing other parts of the Soviet-designed complex.

They said the monitors were forced to remove around 100 seals and 20-25 cameras from the plutonium facility.

DPRK foreign ministry has said steps are under way to restore Yongbyon to its "original state" .

Last month, DPRK said it planned to restart Yongbyon because it was angry at Washington for not taking it off its terrorism blacklist.

Flexible verification

Washington has said it will de-list Pyongyang once it allows inspectors to verify claims it made about nuclear arms output, a demand that analysts say has angered Pyongyang. Pyongyang wants a more flexible verification mechanism, they said.

DPRK readmitted IAEA non-proliferation monitors in mid-2007 to verify its dismantling of Yongbyon, four years after expelling UN watchdog personnel following US accusations that it had a secret uranium-enrichment program.

In 2005 DPRK said for the first time it had nuclear weapons capability and in 2006 test-detonated a nuclear device.

The IAEA's director reported on Monday that some equipment previously removed from Yongbyon by North Korea had been returned, but this had "not changed the shutdown status".

Agencies

(China Daily 09/25/2008 page11)