ID :
10986
Sat, 06/28/2008 - 10:08
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/10986
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea blasts nuclear cooling tower in symbolic gesture
Pyongyang, June 28 Kyodo - North Korea on Friday demolished a cooling tower attached to its key Yongbyon nuclear reactor, in a symbolic demonstration underscoring progress in the disablement of the site.
The 30-meter tower was blown up after 5 p.m., in response to the United States
beginning steps to lift some sanctions against North Korea.
The U.S. action was taken after Pyongyang handed over a long-delayed list of
its nuclear programs to China, the host of the six-party talks aimed at
denuclearizing North Korea.
Images showed the cooling tower in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometers from the
capital Pyongyang, come down amid a cloud of dust. U.S. and North Korean
officials as well as select media teams looked on from a designated spot about
1 km away from the blast site.
''I think this is a very important disablement step,'' Sung Kim, the U.S. State
Department's top Korea expert, said at a Pyongyang hotel after his return from
the site.
''We have a lot of work left. But I think this puts us in a good position to
move into the next phase,'' he said.
The cooling tower is part of North Korea's main plutonium production plant.
Under the terms of a six-party deal, the nuclear complex is in the process of
being disabled so that it would be difficult and time-consuming to restart
operations.
The cooling tower had already been stripped of its internal structures when it
was demolished.
North Korea, meanwhile, welcomed the U.S. steps for partially lifting its
sanctions against the country, in its first reaction since the measure was
announced Thursday.
''The DPRK appreciates and hails this as a positive measure,'' the official
Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
''What is important in the days ahead is for the U.S. to fundamentally drop its
hostile policy toward the DPRK, a policy that compelled it to have access to a
nuclear deterrent,'' the spokesman was quoted as saying.
The comment also said the nuclear list Pyongyang submitted to China on Thursday
is ''complete and accurate.''
North Korea's handover of the list ended a stalemate in the denuclearization
talks triggered by differences over the content of the report.
The submission came six months after the end-of-2007 deadline initially set by
the six countries.
In response to the North Korean action, the United States began the process of
taking Pyongyang off its blacklist of terrorism.
Asked what the next step would be, U.S. envoy Kim said work will begin to set
up a scheme for verifying the submitted North Korean list.
''I think the most important task for us is to set up a verification regime to
check the contents of the declaration, and we will be starting that work
immediately,'' said Kim, director of the department's Office of Korean Affairs.
A select group of television stations from countries involved in the six-way
process -- North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia --
had been invited to cover the demolition in Yongbyon.==Kyodo
The 30-meter tower was blown up after 5 p.m., in response to the United States
beginning steps to lift some sanctions against North Korea.
The U.S. action was taken after Pyongyang handed over a long-delayed list of
its nuclear programs to China, the host of the six-party talks aimed at
denuclearizing North Korea.
Images showed the cooling tower in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometers from the
capital Pyongyang, come down amid a cloud of dust. U.S. and North Korean
officials as well as select media teams looked on from a designated spot about
1 km away from the blast site.
''I think this is a very important disablement step,'' Sung Kim, the U.S. State
Department's top Korea expert, said at a Pyongyang hotel after his return from
the site.
''We have a lot of work left. But I think this puts us in a good position to
move into the next phase,'' he said.
The cooling tower is part of North Korea's main plutonium production plant.
Under the terms of a six-party deal, the nuclear complex is in the process of
being disabled so that it would be difficult and time-consuming to restart
operations.
The cooling tower had already been stripped of its internal structures when it
was demolished.
North Korea, meanwhile, welcomed the U.S. steps for partially lifting its
sanctions against the country, in its first reaction since the measure was
announced Thursday.
''The DPRK appreciates and hails this as a positive measure,'' the official
Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
''What is important in the days ahead is for the U.S. to fundamentally drop its
hostile policy toward the DPRK, a policy that compelled it to have access to a
nuclear deterrent,'' the spokesman was quoted as saying.
The comment also said the nuclear list Pyongyang submitted to China on Thursday
is ''complete and accurate.''
North Korea's handover of the list ended a stalemate in the denuclearization
talks triggered by differences over the content of the report.
The submission came six months after the end-of-2007 deadline initially set by
the six countries.
In response to the North Korean action, the United States began the process of
taking Pyongyang off its blacklist of terrorism.
Asked what the next step would be, U.S. envoy Kim said work will begin to set
up a scheme for verifying the submitted North Korean list.
''I think the most important task for us is to set up a verification regime to
check the contents of the declaration, and we will be starting that work
immediately,'' said Kim, director of the department's Office of Korean Affairs.
A select group of television stations from countries involved in the six-way
process -- North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia --
had been invited to cover the demolition in Yongbyon.==Kyodo
