North Korea, KEDO Discuss Shelved Reactors

North Korean officials and representatives from an international consortium met this week to discuss a suspended nuclear reactor project in North Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported today (see GSN, Feb. 23).

The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization decided in November to halt construction on two nuclear reactors for another year (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2004) due to the continuing standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

The organization said it would continue to work with Pyongyang on preserving and maintaining the project site in the village of Kumho on North Korea’s northeastern coast.

Work on the two reactors was 34 percent complete before being halted, according to Yonhap. The original schedule called for construction to be finished in 2003 (Yonhap/BBC Monitoring, Feb. 24).

Meanwhile, South Korea’s intelligence agency released a report today saying it believes North Korea has not been able to construct a uranium enrichment plant, Agence France-Presse reported.

Pyongyang probably purchased materials in 2000 to produce centrifuge prototypes for uranium enrichment, according to the report. Rigorous international surveillance, however, has prevented North Korea from acquiring other equipment.

“We believe North Korea has not reached the stage of building an HEU plant because of enhanced efforts by the international community to stop it from securing key equipment,” the Yonhap news agency quoted the report as saying.

North Korea is also developing rocket engines for its Taepodong 2 missile with a range of 4,150 miles, the agency believes (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 24).

Elsewhere, a Chinese official said his country’s work on the nuclear matter has achieved results, even though Pyongyang has not agreed to another round of talks, AFP reported.

“All sides have been building consensus among themselves and we have a much clearer picture of the questions we need to settle,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan. “These results have not come by easily” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 24).

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