[USFK Forums] U.S., S. Korea pull out of North's light-water reactor site [AFP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Monday, January 9, 2006

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US, S.Korea pull out of North's light-water reactor site

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AFP Photo: DigitalGlobe satellite image shows the nuclear reactor site in Yongbyon, North Korea.

Sun Jan 8, 5:22 AM ET

Seoul (AFP) - The United States and South Korea have withdrawn their last personnel from the site of two partly-built North Korean light-water reactors after a US-North Korean nuclear deal was officially scrapped.

A 57-strong final contingent, including a US citizen and 56 South Korean engineers and workers, returned by ship to South Korea's east coast from North Korea Sunday afternoon, the unification ministry said Sunday.

The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) officially terminated the project two months ago amid a fresh nuclear standoff.

The two light-water reactors were promised, along with replacement fuel supplies, under a 1994 US-brokered deal to end a crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons efforts.

The Stalinist state had been using a heavy-water reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear bombs.

KEDO was set up to finance and run the project to build the light-water reactors, which are far more proliferation-proof, with the US, South Korea, Japan and the European Union as the key members.

But construction of the new reactors had been in limbo ever since Washington accused Pyongyang in October 2002 of violating the accord by running a separate and secret uranium-enrichment nuclear programme.

The reactors were only about one-third completed, with some 1.5 billion dollars spent. Work started on the project at Kumho near the town of Sinpo on North Korea's east coast in 1998.

North Korea has since accused the US of breaking its word under the 1994 deal.

It has also reactivated its Soviet-era reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, expelled international inspectors and withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It is now engaged in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks to resolve the fresh standoff.

Following five rounds of talks, North Korea has agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes. However, it is insisting that the new light-water reactors be constructed before it honours its pledge.

In the latest twist, the North refuses to return to talks unless the US lifts financial sanctions. South Korea footed most of the bill for the defunct KEDO project, the unification ministry in Seoul said. South Korea has paid 1.1 billion dollars and Japan 400 million dollars for the project.

KEDO left behind its construction equipment and materials worth 45.5 billion won (46 million dollars) at the North Korean site as Pyongyang refused to ship them back, the ministry said.