North Korea said on Friday it was working on restarting its nuclear plant and dismissed the prospect of being removed from a U.S. terrorism blacklist in return for a disarmament deal, reported reuters. The North said it had begun work to rebuild the Soviet-era nuclear Yongbyon plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium that was being taken apart under a much-delayed disarmament-for-aid deal it reached with five regional powers, including Washington. "The DPRK (North Korea) neither wishes to be delisted as a 'state sponsor of terrorism' nor expects such a thing to happen," the North's official KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. Last month, North Korea said it planned to restart Yongbyon because it was angry at Washington for not taking it off its terrorism blacklist. In early September, it made minor but initial moves to restart the plant, U.S. officials said. Washington has said it will remove Pyongyang from the list once the state allows inspectors to verify claims it made about its nuclear arms production. Once removed, the North can better tap into international finance and expand its meagre trade. North Korea, which exploded a nuclear device about two years ago, began to disable Yongbyon in early November as called for in the deal it struck with China, the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The disablement -- mostly completed except for a few key steps that involve both spent and unused nuclear fuel rods -- were aimed at putting Yongbyon out of the plutonium production business for at least a year.
