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Thursday, Dec. 12, 2002

The reactor, suspected of producing plutonium for nuclear arms, was mothballed in 1994 under the Agreed Framework with the United States.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country would "immediately lift the freeze on and reactivate and build nuclear facilities necessary for power production."

The statement, carried by the state-run North Korean Central News Agency, was monitored in Seoul.

Under the 1994 pact, North Korea pledged to freeze its Soviet-designed reactors. These graphite-moderated facilities produce weapons-grade plutonium.

In return, Pyongyang got a U.S. promise to build safer light-water models for the energy-starved country.

In October, Washington said that Pyongyang had acknowledged it had a clandestine arms program for uranium enrichment, which had operated for years in violation of the 1994 accord.

Following Pyongyang's admission, the United States and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend fuel oil shipments to North Korea from December.

"The United States has failed to comply with its pledge to provide heavy oil shipments," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

'Hostile Policy'

North Korea reiterated its claim that the "nuclear crisis" on the Korean Peninsula was due to the "U.S. hostile policy." It has called for U.S. compensation for the loss of electricity caused by the policy.

The declaration comes amid rising concern about North Korea's arms program, with the seizure of a cargo of North Korean-made Scud missiles from a ship off the Arabian peninsula.

The cargo was subsequently released and the ship was allowed to proceed to its destination in Yemen.

The interception was intended as a warning against arms proliferation by the North, a senior South Korean official said.

North Korea said it had the right to develop weapons to defend itself. "It is necessary to heighten vigilance against the U.S. strategy for world supremacy and 'anti-terrorism war,'" said the North's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, in an editorial.

"All countries are called upon to build self-reliant military power by their own efforts," the newspaper said.

It was unclear, however, whether the editorial was a response to the interception, as North Korea usually takes several days to respond to international events.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday called North Korea the "single largest proliferator" of missile technology.

The South Korean government on Thursday convened a National Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea's declaration, and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed concern about the North's surprise announcement.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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