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NKorea
Says Its Nuclear Facilities Reactivated
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Nkorea
put “the operation of its nuclear facilities for the production
of electricity on a normal footing after their restart”
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With
additional reporting by Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff
SEOUL,
February 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell Wednesday, February 5, started his much-anticipated
report on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea indicated that
it had reactivated its nuclear facilities for the production of
electricity.
“The
DPRK is now putting the operation of its nuclear facilities for the
production of electricity on a normal footing after their restart,” a
Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a report on the official Korean
Central News Agency, published almost minutes before “Powell’s
show” started.
“The
DPRK government has already solemnly declared that its nuclear activity
would be limited to the peaceful purposes including the production of
electricity at the present stage,” he said, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
“However,
the U.S. is trying hard to paint the DPRK’s nuclear activity as one of
different nature, prompted by a sinister political intention to invent a
pretext for bringing its issue to the U.N. and internationalize it.”
However,
the United States and nuclear experts say the Yongbyon nuclear reactor
is too small to generate meaningful amounts of electricity, according to
the BBC’s online news service.
They
fear that North Korea’s real purpose is to produce weapons grade
plutonium as part of a high-risk strategy to persuade the U.S. to sign a
non-aggression pact.
Political
observers believe North Korea “wanted to send a message to the
Americans by choosing this timing”. The Stalinist state knows for sure
that Powell’s report on Iraq – whether it carries any incriminating
evidence against Baghdad or not – is seen by Washington as the final
step before invading Iraq.
According
to observers, by declaring the reactivation of its nuclear facilities
now, Pyongyang is either forcing the U.S. to sign a non-aggression pact
or – if not – North Korea will sure acquire a nuclear weapon; the
only deterrent that can stop America from attacking it once Iraq is done
with.
Energy-starved
North Korea has already said it needed to re-start nuclear activities to
make up for a shortfall in energy supplies after a Washington-led
coalition cut off fuel shipments late last year.
The
shipments were suspended after Washington said in October that Pyongyang
admitted running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994
agreement.
Under
the agreement, the United States provided fuel aid while North Korea
halted its nuclear program.
After
the fuel shipments were suspended, North Korea resumed activity at
Yongbyon, a long-mothballed facility capable of producing weapons-grade
plutonium.
North
Korea has withdrawn from the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons (NPT).
The
U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet February
12 to consider asking the U.N. Security Council to act against North
Korea for violating nuclear non-proliferation agreements.
The
Security Council could impose sanctions on North Korea as punishment for
its nuclear program, though the North has said such a move would amount
to “an act of war”.
Threats
to Not Recognize U.N. Security Council
In a further defiance, North Korea warned it would no longer recognize
the U.N. Security Council should it not take the United States to task
for its “wrong Korean policy.”
“If
the U.N. Security Council responsible for the issue of world peace and
security does not call the U.S. wrong Korean policy to task, this
organisation will turn out to be partial and the DPRK (North Korea)
will, accordingly, not recognize it,” a North Korean foreign ministry
spokesman said.
“The
DPRK does not care about whether the U.N. Security Council discusses the
nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula or not,” he said in a statement
on Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“But
if it wants to handle this issue, it should fairly call into question
the responsibility of the U.S. which is chiefly to blame for the
outbreak of this issue and for the strained situation.”
The
spokesman said that the United States, by including U.N. members Iraq
and Iran as well as North Korea in an “axis of evil” was slanderous
and had “wantonly violated the principle and spirit of the U.N.
charter.”
The
United States has also breached the fundamental principle of the nuclear
Non Proliferation Treaty “which bans nuclear threat to the non-nuclear
states by listing non-nuclear countries as targets of its preemptive
nuclear attacks,” he said.
North
Korea accuses Washington of planning an invasion, reinforcing its 37,000
troops already in South Korea with B-1 and B-52 bombers that have been
ordered to prepare for deployment to the Korean peninsula.
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