N. Korea reapplying seals on nuclear facilities: State Dept.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has begun reapplying seals to its nuclear reactor as a step toward disabling its nuclear facilities, an about-face after weeks of defiance over the U.S. failure to remove the North from a terrorism blacklist, the State Department said Tuesday.

"I understand that the IAEA has resumed its work," spokesman Sean McCormack said
at a daily news briefing. "It has started to reapply seals."
The remarks came after the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday its
monitors are in place in North Korea's nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of the
North's capital, Pyongyang, about one week after they were expelled amid rising
tensions over how to verify the North's declared nuclear facilities.
The U.S. Saturday announced that North Korea had agreed to allow access to its
nuclear facilities and undeclared sites, on "mutual consent," by U.S. and other
international inspectors in a major breakthrough in the denuclearization talks
involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
Washington then lifted the North from the U.S. list of state sponsors of
terrorism, and Pyongyang responded by saying it will begin disabling its nuclear
facilities again.
Hardliners contend the Bush administration surrendered to North Korea in hopes of
achieving its only diplomatic victory as it deals with difficulties in Iraq, Iran
and Afghanistan at the end of its eight-year tenure.
The New York Times said in an editorial Tuesday, "The deal is far from perfect.
It includes vague and confidential terms that could cause problems."
The liberal daily was referring to the clause on access to undeclared sites by
"mutual consent," which may mean no access to undeclared sites that might have
uranium-based nuclear facilities, one of the contentious points in the
verification issue along with suspected nuclear proliferation.
Proponents say the deal should not be seen as surrender, but an accomplishment
that prevented North Korea from producing more plutonium for nuclear warheads,
aside from up to 50 kilograms of plutonium it is believed to have already. The
amount is enough to produce several warheads.
"I guess, simply put, the North Koreans have started the reversal of their
reversal," McCormack said. "So they're getting back to that baseline where they
were very close to meeting their obligations under this second phase that we're
in, in terms of disablement."
The spokesman said U.S. monitors were back "on the ground."
"And I didn't check this morning to see if they actually were engaged in
activities," he said. "But I believe that they are free to do so."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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