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| President Park Geun-hye and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte step into a conference hall after shaking hands to hold a summit at The Hague in the Netherlands, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Tae-gyu
THE HAGUE ― President Park Geun-hye warned during a TV interview broadcast here Sunday that a potentially devastating nuclear accident could occur in the North Korean city of Yongbyon and be potentially worse in scale than the 1986 Chernobyl incident.
The Chernobyl nuclear accident in today's Ukraine is one of only two nuclear disasters classified as a maximum level-seven occurrence in the International Nuclear Event Scale along with the 2011 Fukushima incident.
"The North's activities triggers fears that they could end up leading to competition for nuclear armaments of its neighbors," Park told the Dutch TV station NOS timed with her participation in the Nuclear Security Summit this week.
"Because so many nuclear facilities are built in Yongbyon, it runs the risk of causing a disaster worse than that in Chernobyl if just a single building catches fire."
The North's third atomic test in early 2013 and the resultant security crisis on the Korean Peninsula prompted the Stalinist state to vow to reactivate its Yongbyon nuclear site. The reactivation will make it possible for spent fuel rods containing plutonium suitable for weapons-grade to be produced.
In 2007, North Korea mothballed its reactors in Yongbyon, some 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang, under an international agreement through the six-party talks. Yet, the country is suspected of clandestinely operating the complex.
In the event of any accident at the Yongbyon zone comparable in scale to that of Chernobyl, the potential damages would extend beyond North Korea to include nearby countries like South Korea, Japan and China.
There are different accounts of the death toll of the Chernobyl disaster, with some arguing that the fatality rate may have exceeded 1 million as a result of the radioactive material released.
"The concerted efforts of the world can result in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It can be a sort of an international pilot project," said the country's first woman chief executive.
