The U.S. Department of State on Friday said that North Korea has not yet restarted its nuclear plant at Yongbyon but is moving “closer and closer” to doing so. North Korea, which accused Washington of breaking a six-country nuclear disarmament deal, said that it is working to restart its atomic reactor and no longer wants to continue with the deal it made with the United States. Under the pact, Washington promised North Korea humanitarian and resource concessions for dismantling their nuclear program. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that North Korea is moving “closer and closer to that point of operationalizing Yongbyon again,” adding that “they haven't got that point yet and we would urge them not to get to that point.” “They [the North Koreans] have a choice. They can go down the pathway of having different and better relationship with the world... or they can keep themselves isolated, move the process backward. So we'll see. I don't think we're to the point yet of there having fully reversed what they have done," he said. North Korea, which is a hardline communist state, tested an atomic weapon in October 2006. The country then began to disable its aging reactor and other plants at Yongbyon last November under a six-country pact with South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia. Last month, North Korea halted its dismantling in protest against Washington's refusal to drop it from the U.S. blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, as promised under the deal. Washington said the North must first accept strict outside verification of a nuclear inventory which Pyongyang handed over in June.
