Developing states have right to peaceful nuke-Rodong Sinmun

PYONGYANG, November 30 (Itar-Tass) - Developing countries, including
North Korea, "have every right to use nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes," the country's central party newspaper Rodong Sinmun writes on
Tuesday.
According to the publication, the Western powers "exert pressure and
impose sanctions against 'unruly nations' implementing their nuclear
programmes, and vice versa, they urn a blind eye to the same activities of
the countries pleasing them. All this testifies to the "double standards
policy" in the sphere of the use of nuclear energy, the newspaper says.
Rodong Sinmun reported that North Korea is currently implementing a
project to build a light water reactor, "using thousands of centrifuges at
its uranium enrichment plant." The commissioning of the reactor would meet
the country's growing demand for electricity, according to the publication.
North Korea for the first time announced the construction of a light
water reactor based on its own raw materials and technology in April 2010.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that it
"will be a response to reports of US and Japanese media on a possible
development of an uncertain situation in North Korea."
Moreover, the agency noted, the information "about an unstable society
and the crisis in North Korea" appears at a time when the volume of
Juche-iron, as well as synthetic fibre (vinalon) produced by Korean
experts is growing in the country.
"In the future, the consolidated and united nation guided by its
leader Kim Jong Il will achieve greater success, despite the efforts of
hostile forces, primarily the United States, to tighten the already
stringent sanctions and isolate the people's republic," said the agency.
"These actions are completely contrary to the desire of the parties
concerned to make progress in the process of denuclearisation on the
Korean Peninsula."
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea vowed
Tuesday to step up its uranium enrichment activities for "peaceful
purposes" and claimed that it has thousands of centrifuges, deepening
outside worries that they could be used as a second means of building
nuclear bombs. The announcement is hardly a surprise as Pyongyang has
already made the same claim to a visiting US expert recently. But it comes
as tension soars to the highest point in years on the Korean Peninsula
after the communist state shelled a South Korean island last Tuesday and
killed four people, including two civilians. South Korea and the United
States have been engaged in a massive naval exercise since Sunday in a
show of force against North Korea, mobilizing a supercarrier and drawing
threats of retaliation from Pyongyang if the disputed Yellow Sea border is
violated.
"Currently, the construction of a light-water reactor is actively
underway," said the Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the North's ruling
Workers' Party, referring to a nuclear facility that uses low-enriched
uranium to produce energy. "To guarantee fuel for it, a uranium enrichment
factory is operating, equipped with thousands of centrifuges," the paper
said in the report carried by the North's official Korean Central News
Agency. "To resolve energy needs, the nuclear energy development project
for peace purposes will be pushed harder."
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