By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

North Korea completed reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in late August and made ``noticeable’’ achievements, its official media reported Tuesday.

The claim, which came a day after Pyongyang called for a prompt decision on having bilateral talks with the United States, was construed as an intention to increase pressure to get the U.S. into direct negotiations.

North Korea ``successfully completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods by the end of August as part of programs to restore the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state,’’ the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It continued, ``Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent in North Korea.’’

The secretive state made similar remarks in September when it sent the U.N. Security Council a letter saying its uranium enrichment tests have been successfully carried out and that process is in the ``final phase.’’

On Monday, an unidentified spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said, ``If the United States is not ready to sit vis-a-vis with us, we will go our own way,’’ according to the KCNA.
The North issued a series of warnings after Ri Gun, North Korea’s chief diplomat on U.S. affairs, returned home from a closed-door meeting with American officials in New York last week.

The United States has been cautious about the meeting and possible bilateral talks between the two sides.

``There was no agreement for a specific bilateral meeting and no agreement to make any announcement of that sort, either,’’ State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr