NewsMax Wires
Friday, Dec. 13, 2002

The Foreign Ministry's comments, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, came one day after Pyongyang surprised the world by declaring it would restart nuclear facilities that were mothballed under a 1994 accord.

"The U.S. captured the DPRK (North Korea) trading cargo ship So San in broad daylight when the ship was sailing in the open seas off Yemen on Dec. 10," the ministry said. "Soon after it was brought to light that its capture had no legal ground but wantonly violated the routine trade between countries, the United States was compelled to send the ship back.

"This is an unpardonable piracy that wantonly encroached upon the sovereignty of the DPRK."

Earlier this week, Spanish warships seized a North Korean ship carrying at least 15 short- and medium-range Scud missiles in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. military took charge of the ship, but then allowed it to sail on after high-level diplomacy between the United States and Yemen.

The North's statement further increased tensions on the Korean peninsula sparked by Pyongyang's announcement of a decision to "immediately" revive Soviet-designed plutonium facilities suspected of being used to develop nuclear weapons.

North Korea also requested the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove seals and monitoring cameras from all its nuclear facilities. In a letter to the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog, North Korea informed the IAEA of its decision to reactivate the nuclear facilities.

The reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, was frozen in 1994 after a year-long crisis ended with the Agreed Framework between the United States and North Korea.

The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said that year that the CIA estimated North Korea had produced one or two nuclear weapons.

Under the framework, North Korea pledged to freeze its nuclear arms program in return for 500,000 tons a year of heavy fuel oil and construction of two light-water reactors by the KEDO international consortium, comprised of the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union.

Despite Pyongyang's moves, construction of the light water reactors at Kumho, on North Korea's northeastern coast, was progressing normally, a KEDO official here said.

"The light water reactor project, as of now, is being carried on as normal with no disruption," the official told United Press International.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
North Korea
Editor's note:
FREE - 4 Months to NewsMax.com`s Magazine. Check It Out - Get four FREE