December 13, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 8, 1423

SEOUL, Dec 12: North Korea brought Washington’s worst fears a step closer to reality on Thursday by announcing it was reviving the same nuclear scheme that brought the Korean peninsula to the brink of war less than a decade ago.

Preoccupied by the war on terrorism and focussing hard on preparations for possible military action against Iraq, the United States is now faced by a deepening nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.

“Depending on how the United States reacts, we may have a highly explosive situation,” said political science professor Suh Dong-Man of Sangji University, south of Seoul.

The announcement was the latest development in a two-month nuclear confrontation that stemmed from US revelations in October that North Korea had admitted to running a nuclear programme based on enriched uranium, in breach of a 1994 accord with Washington.

However, Thursday’s statement relates to a mothballed plutonium producing programme that was frozen under the 1994 accord, and the revival of this project presents a more immediate danger.

Nearly a decade ago the United States and North Korea were close to going to war over the plutonium scheme before it was shut down under the 1994 Agreed Framework.

The United States believed prior to signing the accord that Pyongyang had already produced enough plutonium with its graphite-moderated reactor for at least one nuclear bomb.

It also shut down work on the construction of two more plutonium producing reactors which will now restart if Pyongyang carries out its threat to revive the programme.

“The uranium enrichment programme, if it exists, would not become a real threat within the next five years, but those (plutonium) facilities being reactivated are imminent threats,” Suh said.

“It is very ironical to see that the United States has ended up trading a remote danger for an imminent nuclear threat.”

He said North Korea’s decision to revive the programme would entail opening the seals on some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, from which plutonium would be extracted for nuclear weapons.

“When the North completes these two reactors, it would have access to plutonium which would be sufficient enough to manufacture several bombs every year,” Suh said.

Hideshi Takesada, professor at Tokyo’s National Institute for Defence Studies, affiliated with Japan’s Defence Agency, said that although Washington was preoccupied with Iraq, the decision could still backfire on North Korea.

“Pyongyang may think that now the ball is in (US President George) Bush’s court but the announcement has only deepened the Bush administration’s mistrust of North Korea,” Takesada said.

“Washington is so much preoccupied with Iraq at the moment that it may call on Russia and China to exert pressure on the North. It may ask South Korea to walk abreast with Washington.

“Diplomatically, the announcement proves advantageous to the Bush administration.”

Political science professor Kim Syng-Ho of Yonsei University, Seoul, said the alarming decision by North Korea represented its last card in the nuclear standoff with Washington.

“North Korea is using brinkmanship to force the United States to come to the dialogue table,” he said.

North Korea said its decision to revive its frozen nuclear programme was forced on it after the United States stopped fuel shipments.

Pyongyang denies producing nuclear weapons and says it needs the nuclear reactors to meet its deepening energy crisis. The suspended fuel oil shipments represent some 20 percent of North Korea’s power production capacity in a country chronically short of electricity for its factories, hospitals and homes.

APPEALS: South Korea and Japan on Thursday called on North Korea to reverse its decision to reactivate the mothballed nuclear programme.

The two countries expressed regret over the latest move and demanded that Pyongyang honour international arms control accords.

“We are expressing strong regret and grave concern as the North Korean foreign ministry statement could raise tension on the Korean peninsula,” South Korea’s National Security Council said in a statement after a three-hour emergency meeting here.

“The North’s nuclear issue must be resolved peacefully through dialogue at the earliest possible date,” it said.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for a calm, coordinated response from Tokyo, Seoul and Washington.—AFP