World>Terrorism & Security
posted May 11, 2005, updated 12:30 p.m.

North Korea says it pulled fuel rods at nuclear site

Washington, looking to Beijing for leverage over Pyongyang, finds little, if any, action.

By Jim Bencivenga | csmonitor.com

North Korea announced Wednesday that it had completed removing spent nuclear fuel rods from a reactor at its main nuclear complex, reports The Associated Press.

The procedure would allow the secretive, totalitarian state to obtain weapons-grade plutonium that could be used to build a nuclear bomb and it is the "the communist state's latest provocation amid a deadlock in disarmament talks," says AP.

The step comes after South Korean officials confirmed last month that the Yongbyon reactor was shut down, which would allow the rods to be removed and be reprocessed to extract weapons-grade plutonium. The North didn't specifically say Wednesday it would take such a step.

Western nuclear experts say that reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods could yield enough plutonium to make between five to eight nuclear bombs. Should North Korea test a nuclear weapon, it would "alter the strategic balance in Northeast Asia," reports Reuters.

However, questions remain as to whether North Korea is bluffing, and whether its leaders have decided that demonstrating their nuclear capacities would serve their purposes better than continued ambiguity about them, reports The New York Times. Intelligence analysts examining satellite imagery of North Korean actions at its nuclear site have yet to reach a consensus as to exactly what is going on.


05/05/10 The big catch that wasn't? 05/09/05 US refocuses strategy in Iraq 05/06/05 Iraq war batters Blair at ballot box

Sign up to be notified daily: Find out more.

What is this?

China's approach to dealing with North Korea remains basically unchanged despite concerns about a nuclear test, and despite repeated appeals by the US for China to take a tougher line.

North Korea's actions come on the heels of China's ruling out on Tuesday "applying economic or political sanctions to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program," reports the Times.

China's decision appears "to undercut" the Bush administration's efforts at preventing North Korea from going nuclear, says the Times.

Beijing's apparent unwillingness to go along with Mr. Bush's backup plan to squeeze North Korea takes away the crucial pressure point that Mr. Bush's aides have been counting on. It also suggests that the strategy of threatening to go to the United Nations Security Council - which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun to discuss - could fail.
China's statement came just days after officials said at least one American intelligence agency had picked up signs that North Korea might be preparing for its first test of a nuclear weapon at Kilju in the northeastern part of the country.

Washington made no secret it was relying "largely on China to woo Pyongyang back to the stalled six-party nuclear talks that also include Japan, Russia and South Korea," reports Australia's News.com

"The Chinese may be feigning indifference," the Times quotes Kurt Campbell, a former senior defense official in the Clinton administration dealing with Asian issues. "I believe in private they are putting pressure on the North Koreans not to test because a test would be deeply antithetical to their interests in the region."

The proliferation threat in East Asia threatens the world with " nuclear dominoes" writes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

If North Korea sets off a nuclear test, how long will Japan continue relying on the US for its nuclear shield? And what will South Korea and Taiwan do? And if Japan or South Korea goes nuclear, how may an anxious China react?

What puzzles Friedman is why China fails to act in quashing North Korea's nuclear designs, given that a test would run so counter to China's interests in the region.

North Korea's nuclear program could be stopped tomorrow by the country that provides roughly half of North Korea's energy and one-third of its food supplies - and that is China. ...
One thing we know about China - it knows how to play hardball when it wants to, and if China played hardball that way with North Korea, the proliferation threat from Pyongyang would be over.

China's official position as of Wednesday is to urge "restraint ... from all parties to six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions," reports Reuters.