SEOUL // North Korea said today it would resume taking apart its plutonium-producing nuclear plant and allow in inspectors in response to a US decision to remove it from a terrorism blacklist and salvage a faltering nuclear deal. The isolated and destitute North has longed to be delisted so it can better tap into international finance, see the lifting of many trade sanctions, and use global settlement banks to send money abroad instead of relying on cash-stuffed suitcases. Meanwhile, recently-released photographs of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il have been condemned in South Korea as fake. The South's Yonhap news agency said they were taken before his reported stroke in mid-August.
Yesterday the North's state television showed photographs of Mr Kim for the first time in almost two months since he disappeared from the public eye. But Yonhap said the dark green colour of grass and trees in the images led intelligence authorities to believe they were taken in summer, and it was not even clear which year. The North has not responded to the claims. Speaking about the nuclear dismantiling, the North's KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying: "As the US fulfilled its commitment to make political compensation and a fair verification procedure in line with the phase of disablement ... the DPRK (North Korea) decided to resume the disablement of nuclear facilities in Yongbyon."
The spokesman said the North would "allow the inspectors of the United States and the IAEA to perform their duties on the principle of 'action for action'", saying it will disable the nuclear plant and permit the inspectors in as others fulfill their obligations. The US decision was made after the secretive North agreed to a series of verification steps on its nuclear plant, a State Department spokesman said in Washington yesterday. The deal also called for resuming disablement and allowing in inspectors.
Last month North Korea lashed out at not being removed by backing away from the disarmament-for-aid deal it made with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and took initial measures to rebuild its Soviet-era nuclear plant, which was being disabled under the pact's terms. Most of the disablement steps, which were started in November, had been completed and were aimed at taking at least a year to reverse.
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy said in a briefing today: "This government welcomes these moves as an opportunity that would lead to normalisation of the six-party talks and North Korea's eventual abandonment of its nuclear programmes." But one hawkish Japanese minister called the US decision regrettable because it left unresolved the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped by the North. * Reuters
