N. Korea slows nuclear disablement work even further+

BEIJING, March 17 Kyodo - North Korea has slowed disablement work at its key nuclear reactor from what had already been a snail-like pace, complaining it has not been given energy aid promised in compensation, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

The slowdown comes at a time when the delivery of about 75 percent of
assistance promised in a six-party deal has been completed, but the other 25
percent remains up in air.
North Korea is disabling the reactor in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometers from
capital Pyongyang, under the denuclearization-for-aid deal reached among the
two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia in 2007.
According to the sources, North Korea recently dropped the pace of disablement
work by reducing the number of nuclear fuel rods it removes from the reactor
from 15 a day to 15 a week.
While North Korea can safely pull up to 100 nuclear fuel rods a day, it has
gradually slowed the pace from early 2008 to protest the delay in delivery of
the energy aid by other countries. It has been discharging 15 a day from last
autumn.
To date, about 80 percent of the 8,000 nuclear fuel rods have been removed from
the reactor and placed in an adjacent water pond.
The source of North Korea's complaint has been the energy aid totaling 1
million tons of heavy fuel oil it has been promised as compensation.
The United States and Russia have finished delivering their share of oil. China
is also close to completing its shipments of equipment that is translated into
part of the oil aid.
While South Korea has also sent the bulk of its assistance, it stopped at the
point where it had aid worth 55,000 tons left, citing a stall in the six-way
denuclearization talks and strained ties with North Korea.
Japan, meanwhile, continues to refuse joining in the assistance, saying
progress must first be made toward resolving kidnapping cases of Japanese
nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
No decision has been made on who will shoulder Japan's share of the aid, which
is worth 200,000 tons of oil.
North Korea had warned about a possible slowdown to a group of U.S. experts
which visited the country last month, asking the scholars and analysts to
inform the U.S government about its position, the diplomatic sources said.
The group, including Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear weapons expert and Stanford
University professor, visited the country in late February.
The six-party denuclearization process has proceeded with fits and starts since
its inception in 2003.
Negotiations have stalled since the grouping's last meeting in December, due to
differences over ways to verify North Korea's nuclear activities.
==Kyodo