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North Korea Reassembling Nuclear Center, U.S. Officials Say

Tuesday , September 02, 2008

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WASHINGTON -
North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now
putting the center back together in violation of the United States'
conditions for improved diplomatic relations between the countries, U.S.
officials told FOX News on Tuesday.

The motive isn't clear but sources say North Koreans likely are reassembling
nuclear facilities at Yongbyon partly to protest the United States' delay in
taking the country off its list of terrorist-sponsoring nations.

"They've been threatening this move for some time," one U.S. official told
FOX News, adding that until now the threats were seen as merely a way for
North Korean officials "to express their anger."

Even now, piecing the facility back together is seen as a "symbolic gesture"
because so much already has been taken apart, though the United States is
taking the developments seriously.

Another U.S. official told FOX News that North Korea's intent might be "to
put further pressure on us." The cooling tower is gone but the reactor could
be back in operation in two to three months, the official said.

North Korea began disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and
other facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear center in November as a step toward
their ultimate dismantlement in exchange for economic aid and political
concessions, including removal from the U.S. terror list.

Last week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry announced it has stopped disabling
the center because the United States failed to remove the communist nation
from Washington's terrorism blacklist.

It was the first time that the North had halted the disablement work, though
it had slowed the process in protest against the delayed provision of
promised aid from its negotiating partners.

The United States announced in June that it would take North Korea off the
terror list after Pyongyang turned in a long-delayed account of its nuclear
programs and blew up the cooling tower at the reactor.

The two sides have since been negotiating how to verify the nuclear
declaration, but no agreement has been reached. Washington has insisted it
will remove North Korea from the terror list only after the country agrees
fully to a verification plan.

FOX News' Nina Donaghy, Jennifer Griffin and Justin Fishel and the
Associated Press contributed to this report.

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