N. Korea says steps taken to boost nuke arsenal

updated 1:52 p.m. ET May 11, 2005

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Wednesday it has completed removing spent fuel rods from an atomic reactor, enabling it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium. It was the communist state’s latest provocation amid deadlocked talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country had “successfully finished” removing 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at its Yongbyon complex, which was shut down last month, so it can “bolster its nuclear arsenal.”

North Korea kicked out international nuclear inspectors in late 2002, making it impossible to verify the claim.

While experts previously said an earlier batch of 8,000 rods could yield enough plutonium for five to eight bombs, South Korean media reported the current batch would likely yield material for only a couple of bombs because of the shorter time it was inside the reactor. To get the plutonium, the rods would need to cool and then be reprocessed, which takes months.

China rejects sanctions
The announcement came a day after China rejected using sanctions to prod Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions, with a spokesman saying Beijing’s political and trade relations with its neighbor should be kept separate.

“We stand for resolving the issue through dialogue. We are not in favor of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions,” China foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular briefing. “We believe that such measures are not necessarily effective.”

A Bush administration official said the United States has asked China to redouble its efforts to lure North Korea back to negotiations.

The U.S. appeal, disclosed by a State Department official Tuesday on condition of anonymity, reflects a growing frustration over North Korea’s refusal to reopen six-nation talks for nearly a year and rhetoric from Pyongyang that U.S. officials consider alarming.

U.S. pushes six-party talks
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said “all parties in the region want to see a nuclear-free (Korean) peninsula. And we stay in close contact with our partners in the region on these matters and work closely with them.”

“China has made it clear North Korea needs to come back to the six party talks. That’s where our focus remains,” McClellan said.

The talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions have been stalled since June, with Pyongyang insisting it won’t return until Washington drops its “hostile” policy. North Korea says the United States is planning an invasion, a claim Washington denies.

North Korea — which claims it already has at least one atomic weapon — is boosting its arsenal “for the defensive purpose of coping with the prevailing situation,” the unnamed North Korean spokesman said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

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