22 September 2008 : Chosun Ilbo
The North Korean Foreign Ministry on Friday reiterated that it is suspending its nuclear disablement and restoring its nuclear facilities.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented, "Now as they have said, and has been reported, they continue to move to the right, getting closer to that point where they are to the point of operationalizing Yongbyon again."
The International Institute for Strategic Studies on Saturday said, "Diplomatic efforts to stem the nuclear proliferation challenges posed by Iran and North Korea are both deadlocked... It will take North Korea less than one year to undo the steps that up until August it was taking to disable its declared nuclear facilities."
There is speculation that to show at home and abroad that it is still in good shape amid rumors of leader Kim Jong-il’s ill health, the North Korean regime could provoke a confrontation by putting its nuclear reprocessing facility, the key component in the production of nuclear weapons, back into operation. North Korea has been keeping about 5,000 spent fuel rods, which it had removed from the 5-megawatt atomic reactor whose disablement process has been underway as of this month, in a water-cooled tank.
If it reprocesses them, North Korea could produce about 6 kg of plutonium, enough to produce one atomic bomb within two or three months, experts speculate.
U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Saturday reiterated the U.S. is willing to take North Korea off its list of terrorism sponsoring countries. "We've made it very clear to North Korea that if they accept a verification protocol, we are prepared to go forward and take them off the terrorist list."
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