South Korea has not seen signs of North Korea restarting work to take apart its nuclear plant as Pyongyang pledged to do at the weekend, a government official today.
North Korea said yesterday it would resume disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear plant and allow visits by inspectors in response to a US decision a day earlier to remove it from a terrorism blacklist and save a crumbling disarmament deal.
"Such (disablement) moves have not been detected yet," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said at a news briefing.
South Korea had planned to send 3,000 tonnes of steel in September to North Korea for meeting previous goals set in the nuclear deal it also reached with China, Japan, Russia and the United States. It delayed the shipment when the North last month said it was restoring its plutonium-producing Yongbyon plant in anger at not being dropped from the US terrorism list.
South Korea has not decided when it will send the steel aid but the shipment would likely be timed to coincide with North Korea returning to operations to take apart Yongbyon, Yonhap news agency quoted multiple sources as saying.
South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the government "may consider the issue of adjusting its position on various projects", and that "food aid or steel aid are within the range of consideration."
As a part of the disarmament-for-aid deal, North Korea began receiving 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil, or aid of equal value such as steel, when it froze operations at Yongbyon last year and allowed in nuclear inspectors.
The North was to be removed from the US blacklist once it provided a full accounting of its nuclear programmes and allowed for a system to check its claims.
The isolated and destitute North has longed to be delisted so it can better tap into international finance, see the lifting of many trade sanctions and use global settlement banks to send money abroad instead of relying on cash-stuffed suitcases.
The US decision to delist North Korea was made after the North agreed to a series of verification steps on its nuclear plant, a State Department spokesman said on Saturday.
Most of the disablement steps, which were started in November, had been completed and were aimed at taking at least a year to reverse.
But verification is fraught with difficulties. First of all, the North reported to have produced less plutonium than the United States had estimated, which is about 50 kg (110 lb), or conservatively enough for six to eight nuclear bombs.
Secondly, the United States wants to be able to check on its suspicions that the North has a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons - giving it a second path to make nuclear bombs - and that it proliferated technology abroad.
The nuclear compromise was reached as North Korea stepped up its campaign to show Kim Jong-il was active and making his first public appearances in nearly 50 days.
US and South Korean intelligence officials said Kim may have suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty.
South Korean media said photographs of Kim the North's state TV broadcast at the weekend may have been taken several months ago, making it uncertain if Kim had recovered.
Reuters