U.S. urges N.K. to reconsider loading material in

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday urged North Korea to reverse its decision to load material into a previously disabled plutonium reprocessing plant and return to its obligations under a multilateral denuclearization deal.

"So again, we urge North Koreans to reverse their actions and to come into
compliance with those obligations under the six-party framework," State
Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news briefing. "You know,
their actions serve only to isolate the North Koreans from the rest of the
international community."
He was responding to remarks made by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
spokesperson Melissa Fleming earlier in the day, who announced that North Korea
expelled IAEA inspectors from its plutonium reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, north
of the capital Pyongyang, apparently to reload spent fuel rods in the plant for
production of weapons-grade plutonium.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe also said, "We strongly urge
the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance
with its obligations as outlined in the Six Party agreements," according to a
statement released by the White House.
Speaking to reporters in New York while accompanying President George W. Bush to
the annual United Nations General Assembly, Johndroe urged the North to come back
to the negotiation table, calling for "further discussions with the North on
their obligations under a verification protocol."
North Korea is believed to have extracted up to 50 kilograms of plutonium from
its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, capable of producing several nuclear warheads.
Estimates vary, but U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama once said
that North Korea has eight nuclear warheads, without elaborating.
The reprocessing plant was being disabled, along with its 5-megawatt nuclear
reactor, under the aid-for-denuclearization deal involving the two Koreas, the
U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
The North, however, said recently it has begun restarting its nuclear facilities,
citing the failure of the U.S. to take Pyongyang off a terrorism blacklist.
Washington was supposed to delist Pyongyang in early August, but has not yet done
that due to the North's reluctance to agree to a verification regime on its
nuclear facilities.
Pyongyang has denounced Washington for demanding unfettered access.
U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill rebuffed that notion Monday.
"This has come up in North Korean public statements as a desire on our part to
conduct house-to-house searches, which is, of course, not what we're interested
in," he said. "We just need the means to make sure that what they've declared to
us is something we can verify."
Hill said North Korea has agreed on "some of the major elements of what
verification will be," but added, "There are some details that do need to be
pinned down."
The IAEA's Fleming told reporters in Vienna that North Korea has announced that
it will "introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time
... There are no more seals and surveillance equipment in place at the
reprocessing facility."
The North's move is reminiscent of the ousting of IAEA inspectors from Yongbyon
in early 2003, just months after the U.S. accused the North of running a secret
highly enriched uranium-based nuclear program in addition to its plutonium
facilities.
North Korea admitted IAEA inspectors again in 2007, soon after it agreed to a
multilateral deal on its denuclearization in return for massive energy and
economic aid and diplomatic recognition.
Some say North Korea's threat to restart its nuclear reactor aims to pressure the
U.S. to lift the North from the terrorism blacklist, but others say North Korea's
hard-line military is taking advantage of leader Kim Jong-il's fragile health to
nullify the nuclear deal. Kim has not been seen in public since Aug. 14 amid
reports he is recovering from a stroke.
Wood indicated he is not sure what the North Koreans are thinking, saying, "It's
hard for me to characterize exactly what's going on in the North Korean mind set
at this point."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said in a CNBC television program
Tuesday that she did not know about Kim's condition exactly.
"Something is going on in North Korea. I don't think any of us know precisely
what," she said, reiterating that North Korea needs to sign the verification
regime "so that we can continue with the six-party process that has a lot of
benefits for North Korea."
hdh@yna.co.kr