Subscription Center
Apr 14, 2009 04:20 PM | 3
North Korea says it's pulling out of disarmament talks and restarting its nuclear reactor, after its launch of a rocket that critics said was designed to test its long-range missile technology drew international outrage.
North Korea claimed it successfully launched the rocket on April 5, carrying a satellite into orbit for the purpose of exploring space. But the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said it had launched a missile whose top stages and payload landed in the Pacific Ocean. The U.N. Security Council condemned the launch yesterday, prompting North Korea's declaration today. Over the course of six years, the country has participated in talks (stalled since last year) with five countries — the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The negotiations have led the country to disable some of its main nuclear reactor and to disclose some of its weapons program in exchange for fuel and food.
"Now that the six-party talks have turned into a platform for infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and seeking to force the DPRK to disarm itself and bring down the system … the DPRK will never participate in the talks any longer nor will it be bound to any agreement of the six-party talks," North Korea's foreign ministry said today through the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The Obama administration, which called on North Korea today to "cease its provocative threats," has previously said it wants to restart the talks.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korean authorities had told its inspectors to leave the country and that the state had "decided to reactivate all facilities and go ahead with the reprocessing of spent fuel."
In its announcement today, the foreign ministry said it would "bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense in every way. It will take the measure for restoring to their original state the nuclear facilities which had been disabled under the agreement of the six-party talks and putting their operation on a normal track and fully reprocess the spent fuel rods churned out from the pilot atomic power plant."
North Korea doesn’t have the means to make an advanced light-water reactor, the Washington Post reports.
North Korean coat of arms via Wikimedia Commons
Tags:
North Korea,
nuclear testing,
weapons
More News Blog:
Next: A new type of painkiller
Previous: In labor? Stand, sit, walk... But don't lie down
See what we're tweeting about
huler every minute i stay in this room i get weaker. and every minute charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger. #aintthatalwaystheway?
BoraZ Bacterium excluded from the Eukaryote Club http://t.co/NTzHwcClJw
beatricebiology Good afternoon! Did you see today's new comic yet? http://t.co/iqOPU52qfY
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Deadline: Jul 30 2013
Reward: $100,000 USD
The Seeker desires a method for producing pseudoephedrine products in such a way that it will be extremely difficult for clandestine che
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
3 Comments
Add CommentThis is very scary stuff.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hope North Korea will stop playing games and join the world in peace. Their citizens are missing a lot of opportunities to prosper. They can not hold back for long their intellectuals without having some form of individual freedom.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNorth Korea should be cut off from its promised food and fuel since they are obviously going against the negotiations settled with the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. I dont think anyone wants a nuclear war, and testing new missles seems like someone might provoke that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this