WASHINGTON, Jan 31: The United States warned North Korea on Friday against taking the “provocative” step of reprocessing nuclear fuel rods to convert them into bomb-grade plutonium.

The warning came as US officials alleged that spy satellites have detected suspicious activity at a North Korean nuclear complex that could be the movement of the 8,000 rods.

North Korea in turn made a new demand that the United States agree to a non-aggression pact to end the nuclear showdown.

“Any steps toward beginning reprocessing would be yet another provocative action by North Korea intended to intimidate and blackmail the international community,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

“Any such step would have the effect of further isolating North Korea from the international community, which is united in seeking a peaceful resolution of the current situation,” the spokesman said.

The United States supports the push by the UN nuclear watchdog to bring the North Korea case to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions on the Stalinist state, Fleischer added.

North Korea has insisted that it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Pyongyang should live up to those promises.

“We would expect North Korea to abide by the public commitment that it’s been making as well as the ones that it’s made in the past,” he told reporters.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, said earlier in Vienna that “North Korea is in noncompliance” with nuclear nonproliferation agreements.

ElBaradei said he had asked the IAEA governing board to clear the way for the nuclear standoff to be brought before the council.

US satellites have detected activity at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex that could be the movement of fuel rods for reprocessing that could obtain weapons grade plutonium, US officials said.

Two officials confirmed in general terms a New York Times report that said US satellites have observed trucks moving up to a building that houses some 8,000 fuel rods at Yongbyon.

One official said it was “unclear” what the activity was.

But he added: “If the North Koreans are moving the rods, that would be consistent with what they have said they are going to do. If in fact that is what they are doing, it would be of concern.”

The Times report said analysts had concluded the trucks were moving rods to a hiding place or to a reprocessing facility.

The truck movement and other activity at Yongbyon could allow North Korea to begin producing bomb-grade plutonium by the end of March, according to the unidentified analysts.

North Korea withdrew from a 1994 accord that froze its suspected nuclear arms development, after the United States in October presented evidence that it was violating the accord.

The satellite photographs have not been shared widely with US allies, some officials told the New York Times, to avoid creating a crisis atmosphere giving North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il more leverage to extract concessions.

Despite the uncertainty, the daily said there is a growing consensus in the US government that North Korea is working to produce bombs as quickly as it can, hoping it will give it more negotiating leverage once the Iraq showdown is out of the spotlight.

North Korea has insisted that only a non-aggression treaty approved by the US Congress would solve the new nuclear crisis and that it had no interest in multilateral talks on the issue.

North Korea’s ambassador to China, Choe Jin-Su, said in Beijing that if Washington agreed to a non-aggression treaty, North Korea would be willing to “clear the United States of its security concerns”.

“If the United States abandons its hostile policy towards our country to stifle us, and refrains from any nuclear threat towards us, we may prove through separate verification between our country and the United States that our country does not make any nuclear weapons,” he said.—AFP