North Korea Wants IAEA to Rid Surveillance Cameras

In its angry reaction to the decision by the United States to discontinue the fuel oil aid, North Korea announced on Thursday that it would reactivate the nuclear facilities that had been frozen. Yesterday, it would request the IAEA to remove the seal and surveillance cameras installed at nuclear facilities in Youngbyun and other areas.

In a letter to the IAEA, North Korean senior official Lee Jeh-soon requested, "We have decided to put back into operation the nuclear facilities that had been on the freeze ever since the 1994 arms control accord."

IAEA`s Secretary General held a news conference in the UN headquarters in New York, and demanded that North Korea should abort its plan to reactivate its nuclear facilities, and should not temper with any equipment installed for inspection purposes. The IAEA, in accordance with the demand by the U.N. Security Council and the 1994 arms control accord between North and the U.S., has monitored whether North Korea`s promise to freeze its nuclear program is in force.

The Secretary General stressed, "The arms control accord is an important tool to maintain the peace on the Koran Peninsula. All parties to the accord should renew their promises and come to the dialogue table for a peaceful solution of the current issue."

He also urged North to agree to a contingency meeting of technical experts to run the frozen nuclear facilities safely.

In the meanwhile, North Korea has not taken any actions such as expulsion of IAEA agents or dismantling of nuclear monitoring equipment. Thus, some experts interpret the inaction of North as an indication that North Korea has not sealed off the room for more negotiations.

If North Korea should take unilateral actions, the tension would be elevated, reported The New York Times. Considering the tone of North Korean foreign ministry, that is not likely to happen, analyzed the paper.

One Bush administration official, in an interview with The New York Times, pointed out, "We have not detected any evidence proving new actions are undertaken around the nuclear facilities in the Youngbyun area. It would take some time to reactivate nuclear reactors. It takes much more time for North Korea to get a hand on the actual materials necessary for the development of nuclear weapons."

konihong@donga.com