N. Korea says it has reached final phase of uranium enrichment

(ATTN: ADDS explanation of why North Korea sent the letter in para 6)
By Lee Chi-dong and Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea resumed provocative steps Friday after
weeks of conciliatory gestures, apparently growing impatient at the Obama
administration's reluctance to talk bilaterally with Pyongyang outside of the
six-nation disarmament talks.
"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted and entered into
the completion phase," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
said. "Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is in its final phase and extracted
plutonium is being weaponized."
The report on what South Korea immediately characterized as "provocations" came
less than three months after Pyongyang announced it would commence uranium
enrichment and additional plutonium production in response to the tightening U.N.
sanctions against Pyongyang.
In a recurring two-track strategy, the KCNA also said the North stands prepared
for "both dialogue and sanctions."
It was detailing the contents of a letter by Pyongyang's top U.N envoy to the
head of the U.N. Security Council, which imposed a set of tough sanctions on the
communist state following its missile and nuclear tests in spring through the
adoption of Resolution 1874.
The KCNA said the letter was related to the one sent to North Korea by the U.N.
sanctions committee seeking clarification, alluding to the inquiry about a North
Korean vessel seized last month while carrying arms shipment to Iran.
U.N. Ambassador Sin Son-ho said in the letter that his country would have not
carried out its second nuclear test in May if the 15-member council had "kept
silent" over Pyongyang's long-range rocket launch the month prior, as it did over
South Korea's attempted satellite launch in August.
If the U.N. council continues the sanctions drive, the North will be "left with
no choice but to take yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures as it had
already warned," the KCNA quoted the letter as saying.
Sin was not available for comment, but another official at the North's U.N.
mission in New York told Yonhap News Agency, "It is true we sent the letter. All
of what the KCNA reported is true."
South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, said North Korea's threats hamper
efforts to resume the six-way talks on its nuclear program.
"It is not helpful," Wi said. "I will talk with Special Representative Stephen
Bosworth about how to cope with the situation."
Bosworth, Washington's special representative for North Korea policy, is due to
fly into Seoul on Friday afternoon from Beijing as part of his regional tour
aimed at kick-starting the moribund denuclearization process.
Wi said the North's letter might not be directly related to Bosworth's trip but
that the KCNA report may be meant to grab his attention.
The North reportedly extended an invitation to Bosworth to visit Pyongyang for
bilateral talks, but the Obama administration rejected it, saying the North
should first return to the six-way talks.
The U.S. State Department made clear that Bosworth has no plans to travel to the
North during his ongoing regional visit.
Signaling its desire for direct talks with the U.S., the KCNA said, "The
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is closely related with the U.S. (as)
well."
"We have never objected to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and of
the world itself. What we objected to is the structure of the six-way talks which
had been used to violate outrageously the DPRK's sovereignty and its right to
peaceful development," it added. DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official
name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The South Korean foreign ministry later issued a statement denouncing the North's
uranium and plutonium activities.
The secretive North is believed to have 30-40 kilograms of weapons-grade
plutonium, enough to make six to eight nuclear bombs, but many see its uranium
enrichment, harder to detect but easier to proliferate as more dangerous than
plutonium production.
"It is not tolerable," ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said of North Korea's
continued nuclear activities. "The government will deal sternly and consistently
with North Korea's threats and provocations."
He added that the North's latest declaration shows its policy on the nuclear
issue has not changed despite the recent overtures.
"There has been no ground so far to believe that North Korea has shifted its
attitude or policy on the nuclear issue," Moon said. "The announcement this time
confirms the fact."
Experts here downplayed it as part of Pyongyang's typical brinkmanship.
"This is a time-honored North Korean pattern -- are you going to let us do the
enrichment or settle this through negotiation," Dongguk University professor Koh
Yu-hwan said. "But when the verbal warning brings nothing, the North usually
takes it into action. Now is the verbal stage, and North Korea will see how the
related countries respond."
Government officials said that the North's defiant stance will only make it
harder for the Obama administration to soften its stance on Pyongyang.
Washington, trying to engage its adversaries such as Iran and Cuba, has been in a
dilemma over how to deal with Pyongyang seeking one-on-one dialogue outside of
the six-party disarmament talks joined by South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
Critics have attacked the Obama government for having sent former President Bill
Clinton to Pyongyang early August to secure the release of two detained American
journalists, arguing it sent a wrong message to Pyongyang when it was boycotting
the multilateral nuclear talks.
The North fired a rocket in April and claimed it put a satellite into orbit, but
the international community see it as a disguised ballistic missile test.
Shortly after the U.N. condemnation of the rocket launch, Pyongyang declared its
exit from the six-party talks.
In June, the North said it had begun uranium enrichment and would weaponize all
the plutonium it extracted from the country's main nuclear facilities in
Yongbyon.
"I don't think North Korea has a consistent policy line when it comes to its
dealings on the nuclear issue," a senior South Korean foreign ministry official
said, asking not to be named.
A prerequisite for bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang is that the
North refrain from "bad behavior," he said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)