October 6, 2009
SEOUL 2009 (AFP) - North Korea appears to be in the final stages of restoring the nuclear plants it had begun disabling under a six-nation disarmament deal, a report said Tuesday.
The North shut down its plutonium-producing plants at Yongbyon in 2007 and began disabling them.
But it quit the six-nation forum in April and vowed to reopen Yongbyon after the United Nations condemned its long-range rocket launch.
"There are signs that the restoration of the Yongbyon facility is in its final stage," a South Korean defence source told Yonhap news agency, citing intelligence reports presented at a parliamentary hearing this week.
The report was based on information from US and South Korean intelligence, Yonhap said.
In addition to its plutonium-based bomb-making programme, North Korea said in September it is in the final stages of an experimental programme to enrich uranium for atomic weapons.
The North last year reported that it had extracted 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of plutonium from Yongbyon over the years. It is not known whether this has already been weaponised.
On Tuesday Pyongyang announced it is willing to return to the six-nation negotiations but only on condition it first holds talks with the United States to improve relations.
