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North Korea backs away from nuclear deal
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 19 - 09 - 2008


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.


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