By Kim Young-jin
North Korea said Wednesday it is making solid progress in efforts to produce low-enriched uranium to power a light water reactor (LWR) now under construction, defying demands from Seoul and Washington to halt the enrichment program ahead of possible denuclearization talks.
"The construction of an experimental LWR and the low enriched uranium for the provision of raw materials are progressing apace," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KNCA), repeating its claim the work was for civilian purposes.
The uranium enrichment program (UEP), which the North disclosed in November 2010, has become a major sticking point in efforts to resume the stalled international negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. The South, the United States and other countries want it to halt the activities in a verifiable manner before heading back to the table.
Despite the North’s claims, analysts worry that completion of the LWR, which it began building last year, could allow Pyongyang to claim it is operating the UEP to fuel the reactor while secretly producing uranium for nuclear weapons. The reactor would also violate existing U.N. Security Council resolutions, officials say.
The statement blamed Seoul and Washington for blocking the six-party talks that also involve Japan, Russia and China, demanding piecemeal concessions instead of a “grand bargain” approach espoused by the Lee Myung-bak administration.
"The U.S. and its allies groundlessly took issue with the DPRK's just nuclear activities for peaceful purposes, deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations," it said.
Analysts said the North could be ratcheting up pressure in a bid to quickly resume the talks from which it stands to gain massive economic and energy assistance. Pyongyang is said to be doing all it can to secure aid before April when it will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late founder, Kim Il-sung and has promised to emerge as a “strong and prosperous” state.
Pyongyang walked away from the talks in 2009 in response to international sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests before raising the stakes by revealing the UEP and launching two deadly attacks on the South. But since July, it has been meeting with Seoul and Washington in a bid to resume the talks, “without preconditions,” a scenario the allies reject.
Pyongyang has sought LWRs since the mid 1980s. Under a 1994 deal with the United States, it was to have received two reactors in exchange for dismantling its plutonium-based program. But the deal fell through amid suspicions over the UEP.
Recent commercial satellite imagery has confirmed progress on the LWR at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex. Pyongyang claims it will soon be operational though some officials doubt whether the isolated state has the capability to run it.
Analysts remain skeptical over whether the North would ever give up its nuclear program even if negotiations resume, saying it would be difficult for the regime to relinquish the program that has become its greatest bargaining chip and claim to deterrence.
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