North Korean Economy Watch

UPDATE:  Well, it looks like the North Koreans are at least pretending to rebuild Yongbyon:

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan expressed deep regret Thursday over North Korea’s move to restart its nuclear reactor and urged Pyongyang to engage in talks on ways to verify its recent nuclear declaration.

Yu confirmed that the North notified the U.S. earlier this week of its decision to reactivate the plutonium-producing facility in Yongbyon.

“As North Korea is translating words into actual action, we express concern over it and close consultations with related nations are under way,” Yu said in his first press briefing in nearly four months.

North Korea told U.S. monitors working at Yongbyon Tuesday that it would recover the Soviet-era reactor which was being disabled under a multilateral disarmament deal signed last year, according to the minister.

North Korea announced on Aug. 26 that it halted the disablement of the nuclear facility and would consider restoring it if the U.S. continues to drag its feet on the promise related with the terror list. (Yonhap)

The State Department maintains they are not rebuilding the reactor. 

Recent history on the US sanctions saga here and here.

ORIGINAL POST (June 27, 2008): Yongbyon Destruction

*

For those who have not seen it yet, there are some videos out there of the Yongbyon cooling tower demolition:

1.  Here is CNN’s coverage with video.
2.  Here is the Associated Press coverage with video (via Washington Post).
3.  Here is the AP video via YouTube.

*Photo from Associated Press.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Energy, Nuclear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.