NORTH KOREA: North Korea is reactivating a nuclear power plant at the centre of a suspected 1990s weapons programme, raising the stakes in a stand-off at the world's last Cold War flashpoint.
The decision, announced yesterday, drew immediate criticism from Washington, which called it "regrettable".
"The announcement flies in the face of international consensus that the North Korean regime must fulfil all its commitments, in particular, dismantle its nuclear weapons programme," the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said.
He said the US sought a peaceful resolution to the North Korean dispute and would not enter into dialogue with the North Koreans "in response to threats or broken commitments".
The latest spat between the two countries follows Wednesday's temporary seizure of a ship carrying North Korean-made Scud missiles. The US and Spain, which effected the seizure at Washington's behest, was forced to back down when it became clear that the missiles were being imported to Yemen legally.
The US yesterday apologised to Spain for the incident. "The Pentagon's number two, Paul Wolfowitz, called \ Defence Minister Federico Trillo on Wednesday to thank and praise Spain for the operation and to apologise for what could seem an absurd situation," a Spanish ministry of defence spokesman said.
The spokesman said authorities in Madrid were "a little surprised" by Washington's decision to release the ship as it had declared North Korea part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran.
North Korea's decision to restart the reactor mothballed in 1994 after an international crisis over alleged production of weapons-grade plutonium there escalates a two-month-long showdown with the US over a second nuclear programme being pursued by the isolated and impoverished communist state.
Analysts said Pyongyang's latest move - which it said it had been forced to take after a US-led decision to suspend oil aid to the country - appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to force arch-enemy Washington to the negotiating table.
The announcement came exactly a week before South Korea's presidential election, a contest which will turn in part on the question of whether to embrace or sanction North Korea.
The reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, was frozen in 1994 after a year-long crisis ended with the Agreed Framework pact between the US and North Korea. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency said that year that the CIA estimated North Korea had produced one or two nuclear weapons.
Under the pact, Pyongyang promised to scrap plans to develop such weapons in return for provision of light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil supplies.
In October this year, Washington said Pyongyang had admitted embarking on a new secret programme, this time to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of the Agreed Framework.
Following that admission, Washington and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend fuel oil shipments to North Korea from December - just as winter brought sub-zero temperatures to the destitute Northeast Asian country.