N. Korea says it completed reprocessing spent fuel rods

(ATTN: UPDATES with KCNA's English report, ADDS background, earlier Yonhap story on
North's reprocessing activities under way)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday it has completed reprocessing
spent fuel rods and made "noticeable successes" in weaponizing plutonium
extracted from them.
The announcement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, came a day
after North Korea's foreign ministry pressed for direct talks with the United
States over the country's nuclear program.
North Korea "successfully completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods by
the end of August as part of the measure taken to restore the nuclear facilities
in Nyongbyon (Yongbyon) to their original state," the report said.
"Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium
weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent in the DPRK
(North Korea)," it added.
The report did not elaborate what the "successes" were.
The Yongbyon complex, some 90km north of Pyongyang, had been mothballed under a
six-nation accord. Pyongyang said in April that it resumed reprocessing the spent
fuel rods from the nuclear complex, in protest against a punitive U.N. resolution
for its long-range rocket launch earlier that month.
Officials in Seoul said earlier that North Korea has apparently restored a
reprocessing facility used to produce plutonium at the Yongbyon complex.
"The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier
conditions," a senior defense official told Yonhap on Monday, citing satellite
photos that also showed a continuous stream of workers in and out of the site in
Yongbyon. Another official said that electricity has been detected being supplied
to the complex on and off over the past few months.
On Monday, North Korea's foreign ministry called on the U.S. to hold one-on-one
nuclear talks with it, saying it will "go its own way" if Washington remains
unresponsive. The North stressed that "now is the U.S. turn" as Pyongyang has
already expressed its position on preconditions for the resumption of the
six-party talks, which also involve South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
After months of provocations, highlighted by a nuclear test in May, the communist
regime has sought to reach out to the outside world and invited Stephen Bosworth,
the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, to visit Pyongyang.
The U.S. has been cautious, however, pressing the North to return to the
six-party talks.
A rare meeting last week between Ri Gun, the North's deputy nuclear envoy, and
Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on the six-way talks, in New York and San Diego
raised media speculation that the two sides were fine-tuning conditions for
Bosworth's visit to North Korea. Some media reports have said Bosworth is likely
to visit Pyongyang within the month.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)