Seoul closely watching N Korea over nuke test preparation

SEOUL, November 17 (Itar-Tass) - South Korea is closely monitoring the
situation in North Korea amid reports of ongoing preparations for a third
nuclear test in the North, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade of South Korea said on Wednesday.
Seoul and Washington have recently exerted pressure on Pyongyang to
force the North to take concrete steps to demonstrate the seriousness of
North Korea to honour its commitments on nuclear disarmament. These steps
must be taken before the resumption of the six-party talks on
denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the Yonhap news agency reports
in this connection.
The last round of the six-party talks was held in December 2008, after
which the official Pyongyang boycotted them.
According to Yonhap, South Korea is keeping a close watch on North
Korea amid reports that the communist nation might be preparing for a
third nuclear test, an official said Wednesday. Japan's Sankei Shimbun
newspaper reported earlier that recent satellite imagery shows tunnelling
and other activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in north-eastern
North Korea, where the country conducted its second atomic test blast last
year.
"It appears to be true that some preparations are underway there, but
we're not sure what they are for," a foreign ministry official said on
condition of anonymity. "We're keeping a close watch." The reported signs
of nuclear test preparations came as South Korea and the United States
remain reluctant about North Korea's expression of willingness to rejoin
the stalled international nuclear disarmament talks.
Seoul and Washington have been pressing Pyongyang to take concrete
steps demonstrating its denuclearisation commitments before reopening the
negotiations that involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the
United States. The talks, which were last held in December 2008, have been
stalled due to Pyongyang's boycott.
In Washington, Jack Pritchard, a Korean Peninsula security expert,
told reporters that North Korean officials told him during a trip to
Pyongyang last week that the country has begun construction on an
experimental light-water nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex,
according to Yonhap. The North wants to complete the construction of a
100-megawatt reactor by 2012, he said.
The North's move could be an effort to pressure South Korea and the US
to resume the stalled six-nation negotiations, where the country could get
economic and political concessions, by stoking concern about the country's
attempt to enrich uranium for weapons. A light-water reactor uses
low-enriched uranium as fuel. If highly enriched, uranium can be used to
build atomic bombs. North Korea claimed last year that it succeeded in
experimental uranium enrichment.
Diplomatic sources in Seoul said that the North could be employing
technology used in the now-defunct international project to build a set of
light-water reactors in North Korea's Sinpo area in exchange for Pyongyang
freezing its nuclear activities under a 1994 deal. The project was about
35 percent complete when construction stopped in 2003 after the latest
nuclear standoff broke out with US accusations that the North had been
running a clandestine uranium-based nuclear programme. There are doubts
over whether Pyongyang has the capabilities to build a light-water reactor.
North Korea blamed the US and the South for the impasse in the nuclear
talks, accusing the two countries of "casting a dark shadow" over the
prospect of the talks' resumption with their demand that the North account
for the sinking of the South Korean warship. Pyongyang has denied any
involvement in the disaster that killed 46 sailors.
"We are ready for both dialogue and confrontation," Pyongyang's main
Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Wednesday in a commentary carried by the
official Korean Central News Agency. "We will respond sternly to the US
and the South Korean authorities intensifying tensions with confrontation
and pressure."
On Thursday, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, plans to
visit Japan for talks with his counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, and Vice
Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae, an official said, adding that the
one-day trip is part of routine discussions among members of the six-party
talks. Wi plans to assess the current situation and discuss ways forward,
the official said.
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