SEOUL: North Korea announced plans yesterday to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor closed since 2007, but emphasised it was seeking a deterrent capacity, rather than repeating recent threats to attack South Korea and the US.
The state-owned KCNA news agency said North Korea would restart all nuclear facilities for electricity and military uses.
A speech by the North’s young leader Kim Jong-un, delivered on Sunday but published in full by KCNA yesterday, appeared to dial down the prospects of a direct confrontation with the US as he stressed that nuclear weapons would ensure the country’s safety as a deterrent.
“Our nuclear strength is a reliable war deterrent and a guarantee to protect our sovereignty,” Kim said. “It is on the basis of a strong nuclear strength that peace and prosperity can exist and so can the happiness of people’s lives.”
Kim’s speech, delivered to the central committee meeting of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, appeared to signal a small shift from threats against South Korea and the US, but it was some distance from any kind of end to the crisis. If Pyongyang follows through with its plan to restart the nuclear facilities, it will have longer-term security implications for the region.
Reactivating the Soviet-era reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear plant will produce plutonium, a tested path to acquire more fissile material than a uranium enrichment programme.
As well as restarting the 5MW reactor at Yongbyon, the North’s only known source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons programme, KCNA said a uranium enrichment plant would also be put back into operation.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the crisis over North Korea had gone too far and urged dialogue to resolve the situation.
“Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability,” Ban said at a news conference in Andorra, where he was on an official visit.
“Things must calm down, as this situation, made worse by the lack of communication, could lead down a path that nobody should want to follow,” Ban said, offering to help the parties to begin talks.
He also called on North Korean authorities to abide by resolutions from the United Nations Security Council.
The US has bolstered its forces in the region after a series of threats by Pyongyang to attack US bases in the Pacific and to invade South Korea.
China said it regretted North Korea’s announcement that it would restart a nuclear reactor to feed its atomic weapons programme, appealing for calm.
“We have noticed the remarks of the DPRK and express our regret,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. Agencies
