Progress claimed on nuclear program
Source: Agencies |
December 1, 2011, Thursday
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NORTH Korea said yesterday it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said construction of an experimental light-water reactor and production of low-enriched uranium are "progressing apace." He said North Korea has a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that "neither concession nor compromise should be allowed."
Concerns about North Korea's nuclear capability took on renewed urgency in November last year when it disclosed it had a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to making nuclear weapons in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.
North Korea has been building a light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex since last year. Such a reactor is ostensibly for civilian energy purposes but would give the country a reason to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking yesterday at an international aid forum in the South Korean port city of Busan, did not respond to the statement on uranium but described the US-South Korean alliance as strong.
She said: "Let me reaffirm that the US stands with our ally, and we look to North Korea to take concrete steps that promote peace and stability and denuclearization."
The North Korean statement accused the US and its allies of taking issue with its peaceful nuclear activities "groundlessly."
They are "deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations," it said.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said construction of an experimental light-water reactor and production of low-enriched uranium are "progressing apace." He said North Korea has a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that "neither concession nor compromise should be allowed."
Concerns about North Korea's nuclear capability took on renewed urgency in November last year when it disclosed it had a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to making nuclear weapons in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.
North Korea has been building a light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex since last year. Such a reactor is ostensibly for civilian energy purposes but would give the country a reason to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking yesterday at an international aid forum in the South Korean port city of Busan, did not respond to the statement on uranium but described the US-South Korean alliance as strong.
She said: "Let me reaffirm that the US stands with our ally, and we look to North Korea to take concrete steps that promote peace and stability and denuclearization."
The North Korean statement accused the US and its allies of taking issue with its peaceful nuclear activities "groundlessly."
They are "deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations," it said.
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