North Korea is restarting its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in response to what the communist Asian country says is a failure by the United States to hold up its end of the disarmament deal signed by six countries in 2007.
A north Korean diplomat told reporters at a press conference Friday that technicians are already performing “thorough preparations” to restart the reactor complex at the Yongbyon nuclear site. Hyun Hak Bong spoke to an international group of reporters in the “truce village” of Panmunjom, shared by North and South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Bong told reporters that since the United States and other countries were not following through in supplying energy aid to North Korea as promised in the historic deal, his country has already lifted the disablement order placed on the reactor last year and has commenced work on restarting it.
On October 9, 2006, North Korea conducted its first test of a nuclear weapon. The test followed claims by North Korea that it has produced nuclear weapons, and U.S. officials estimate that it has the capability to produce up to six or seven nuclear weapons.
On March 17, 2007, during international talks on halting its nuclear program, North Korea agreed to begin shutting down its main facility at Yongbyon. The deal was struck on the condition that a delegation comprised of the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia would supply the country with 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil as an alternative to North Korea’s energy needs.
Four months later, observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency said that technicians had partially shut down the Yongbyon reactor, for which North Korea received the first shipment of 50,000 tons of oil through South Korea.
According to the agreement, the U.S. was supposed to take North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and since it has failed to do so, Hyun announced Friday that his country was “proceeding… to restore [Yongbyon] to its original status.”
Hyun made the remarks prior to meeting with officials from the neighboring Korean republic in Panmunjom, where the two Koreas were to discuss further implementation of the disarmament deal.
He did not clarify when the reactor would be online.