(3rd LD) N. Korea says it is restoring Yongbyon nuclear reactor

(ATTN: UPDATES with more quotes; ADDS Pyongyang official's comment)
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Friday the communist country is restoring its main nuclear reactor and is no longer interested in being removed from the U.S. list of terrorism-supporting countries.

The North "suspended the disablement of its nuclear facilities, and work has been
underway to restore its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state
since some time ago," an unnamed spokesman for the ministry said in an interview
with the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
He formally confirmed news reports that North Korea has taken initial steps
toward restarting the main plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon.
Pyongyang announced in late August that it had stopped disablement of its nuclear
plants, but has remained tightlipped on those reports.
The official called it a "a countermeasure against the action taken by the U.S.
to indefinitely put on hold the effectuation of the measure for delisting the
DPRK as a state sponsor of terrorism."
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of
North Korea.
"Now that the U.S.'s true colors are brought to light," the spokesman went on
saying, "the DPRK neither wishes to be delisted as a 'state sponsor of terrorism'
nor expects such a thing to happen. It will go its own way."
North Korea began disabling its key nuclear facilities in November and provided a
list of its nuclear programs in June as part of a six-nation nuclear disarmament
agreement signed last year. Washington promised to delist Pyongyang from the
terrorism blacklist as part of a package of political and economic rewards, but
has so far not made good on the promise, demanding that the North first agree to
an "international standard" for verifying the declaration.
Washington's inaction, the spokesman claimed, is driven from its intent to
strengthen its hostile policy toward Pyongyang, and goes against the six-party
disarmament deal.
The North reaffirmed its position against the U.S.-proposed verification regime.
"The U.S. seeks to make a house search of the DPRK -- which is neither a
signatory to the NPT nor a member of the IAEA -- under the pretext of an
'international standard,'" the spokesman said. "This is no more than a pipe
dream."
Washington's claim on verification protocol is "sophism" totally denying all
agreements that Pyongyang has so far reached with its five negotiating partners
-- the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, the official stressed.
Earlier on Friday, a chief Pyongyang official said his country is preparing to
restore the Yongbyon reactor.
"We're making a thorough preparation to restart the facility," Hyon Hak-bong,
deputy chief of the U.S. affairs bureau at the North's Foreign Ministry, told
reporters as he headed for the truce village of Panmunjom for talks on energy
shipment to the North under the six-party nuclear talks. When asked about the
timing of the full restoration, he said, "You will get to know soon."
sshim@yna.co.kr
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