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North Korea on Tuesday decided to halt disablement of its nuclear facilities under a six-nation agreement in its umpteenth attempt to stall the process. The North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement said the country ¡°decided immediately to halt disablement of our nuclear facilities, which had been underway under the Oct. 3 agreement of 2007.¡± He added the North ¡°will soon consider reactivating nuclear facilities at Yongbyon in response to strong demands of government bodies."
The statement said the decision ¡°took effect on Aug. 14 and we have already informed relevant countries." The U.S.¡¯ failure to strike the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism by ¡°the promised date¡± earlier this month was ¡°a clear-cut violation of the Oct. 3 agreement,¡± the statement claimed. ¡°We have no choice but to take the measure according to the principle of action for action."
North Korea has so far completed eight of the 11 measures for its nuclear disablement. It was either implementing or planning to implement three measures -- removal of spent nuclear fuel rods, processing unspent fuel rods and removing control rods at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
But the U.S. in response said it would not reconsider striking the North off the list since Pyongyang has failed to agree to a verification protocol for a declaration of its nuclear materials and stockpiles, according to White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
In the statement, Pyongyang said the U.S. ¡°did not remove us from the list within the promised date, claiming that no agreement was reached on a verification regime for our nuclear declaration." But it claimed "none of the agreements signed among the six parties or between us and the U.S. puts conditions on the verification of our declaration in exchange for removal from the terror list.¡±
The Oct. 3, 2007 agreement stipulates that North Korea must make a ¡°complete and accurate¡± declaration of its nuclear programs and stockpiles by Dec. 31, 2007, but does not specify verification. Arguing that declaration and verification should be regarded as a single process, the U.S. postponed the removal of the North from the terror list, which was scheduled to take place on Aug. 11, until after an agreement on verification was reached.
The statement said this ¡°shows the U.S. admitting that the list is in fact not a terrorism-related list¡± but a list of nations ¡°not submissive to the U.S.¡± Remaining on it ¡°will do us no harm,¡± it added.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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